dusk to dawn
by zeldris
Summary: In order to save her sister, Elizabeth is sentenced to life in the custody of a renowned criminal. sort-of beauty and the beast au. meliodas/elizabeth.
1. beginning

**summary: in order to save her sister, Elizabeth is sentenced to life in the custody of a renowned criminal. beauty and the beast au.**

 **pairing: elizabeth/meliodas, ban/elaine, king/diane, gilthunder/margaret, past mentions of meliodas/liz. merlin/undecided, as well.**

 **sidenote: i am a garbage fire sorry for taking so long to actually _write_ for this fandom mm**

* * *

It was just past twilight when Elizabeth heard the telltale squeak of her door being slowly opened. Soft footsteps followed the opening and Elizabeth sat up in her bed, alarmed by the disturbance.

"Elizabeth?" a familiar voice broke the silence, and a single, dim candle appeared in the center of her quarters. "Are you awake?"

"Yes," Elizabeth answered softly, "Margaret? Is that you?"

Margaret's face was illuminated next to the candle, revealing the grim expression scribed on her normally beautiful features. Worried, Elizabeth swung her thin legs off the side of her bed and leaned closer to her elder sister.

"Margaret? What's the matter, are you ill?" Elizabeth inquired, voice raised in concern. Her medical expertise was well recognized in the castle, after years of training with the nurses and doctors she was well-informed enough to be a doctor herself.

"No, I am fine." Margaret replied, voice thick with an unidentifiable emotion. Elizabeth's thin silver eyebrows knitted together.

"Then…what's wrong?" Elizabeth murmured, dusting her hand across Margaret's forehead to check for a fever anyway.

"I…I need to tell you something…" She whispered, her voice hushed with urgency.

Elizabeth nodded, signaling Margaret to continue.

"Listen to me, do you remember when Gilthunder went on that secret mission father gave him, alone?" Margaret asked. Elizabeth pulled up the memory and nodded, Gilthunder had been labeled missing in action for almost a month after he was enlisted with the task. Margaret had been racked with worry, but when Gilthunder returned he had offered little information as to his whereabouts. It was curious, sure, but Elizabeth had been rather distracted at the time, her anatomy assessment had been going on the week of his return.

"Y-yes." Elizabeth said reluctantly. She had a tugging feeling in her stomach that was telling her the outcome of this conversation wasn't going to be pleasant.

"Recently, he told me everything that happened in his absence. He was gravely wounded, close to death after he completed the objective." Margaret breathed out, the weightiness of the topic taking its toll on her. Elizabeth placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, but was shocked to see the appalled expression on her sister's face as she shook her hand off. "A-anyways…"

 _This isn't good,_ Elizabeth thought, _Margaret never stutters…is she upset with me?_

"Before he could die of his injuries, he was rescued…" Margaret trailed off unexpectedly, like she herself couldn't remember the next part of the tale.

"Rescued?" Elizabeth asked, hoping to reawaken the older woman's state of mind.

Margaret blinked. "Right…he was rescued, by a man…" Margaret sucked in an unladylike amount of air and continued. "He was no ordinary man, he wielded a strange power, and was the self-proclaimed deadly sin of wrath."

Elizabeth watched the candle flicker at the mention of the man. Strange.

"This man watched over Gil while he recovered, but when he was in good health, he made Gil promise him a favor in return for his hospitality." Margaret then lowered her brown eyes, normally filled with warmth and love, to Elizabeth's own shimmering teal one. They were completely void of emotion besides sadness.

"Three days ago, Gil was contacted by this man once more, Elizabeth…" Margaret sniffed, ducking her head low to hide what were possibly tears. "I was _there,_ Ellie…I've never felt anything quite so powerful in my entire life…"

"Margaret-" Elizabeth was crudely interrupted.

"He's asked for the favor Ellie, and he wants…what he wants-" Margaret choked back a sob and buried her head in her hands.

"What does he want, Margaret?" Elizabeth asked quietly, her voice coming out in rushed, uncoordinated whispers. The sickly feeling of dread began to freeze, Elizabeth looked down and half-expected to see a blade of ice protruding from her chest.

"You, Ellie." Margaret said hollowly. "He wants you."

The candle sputtered, almost losing its life to the silent breeze.

Elizabeth found herself at a loss for words. Why…would someone ever want _her_? She was nothing – she was the third princess, no inheritance would be gained by her. Not even related to the crown by blood, no proper heir would be produced…

"I…don't know what to do, Elizabeth." Margaret admitted. The words sent a knife through her heart, Margaret was smart, sensible, strong. She _always_ knew what to do – if she didn't know, then who did?

"If I don't do anything, Gil could die – that, that _man_ ," Margaret spit the word _man_ , almost as if she didn't quite believe that he was real man, but a demonic entity that would wreak havoc on the Liones family. "He could kill him…he really could, I'm so _scared_ , but Ellie, oh _Ellie,_ I can't send you to him, I can't, I _can't_ -"

And with those words, Margaret broke, the steel like eldest sister of the Liones family shattered like a fine piece of china. Elizabeth could do nothing but watch, watch her elegant sister crumble, a flower petal lost from its home and caught in the wind.

"W-what do I _do_ – what _can_ I do?" Margaret gasped, her hands grasping Elizabeth's shoulders firmly, leaving crescent moon shapes in her soft porcelain skin.

"How much time do you have?" Elizabeth asked blankly, there was still time, there _had_ to be time, they could figure this all out then…

"Today is the last day…I'm _sorry_ Ellie, I thought I could've made a choice by then…Gil left it up to me, he said he'd refuse if I asked him to…" Margaret choked on her thick, shining tears and Elizabeth felt her insides churn with uncertainty.

Without hesitation, Elizabeth made up her mind.

"I'll go."

The room went silent, Margaret's tears stopped falling and Elizabeth heard the wind bite at the curtains to her balcony.

"E-Ellie…"

"I will go to him, if it's to save Gilthunder…and you…" Elizabeth added, knowing full well that the loss of Gilthunder would kill her sister on the inside.

"Don't say that, Ellie, please…"

Elizabeth looked her sister in the eye, taking in her majesty for what might've been the last time.

"What else do you want me to say?"

With a horrified wail, Margaret, buried her face into the smooth fabric of Elizabeth's nightgown, pouring out her remorse and sorrow into the gossamer threads. With dead-like calm, Elizabeth raked her hands through Margaret's hair, relishing the feel of the soft indigo locks against her palm.

"Now," she said, surprised by the lump in her throat. She might never see her sister again, or Veronica, or her father, or _anyone-_ "How do I get to him?"

"T-this," Margaret shuddered, rubbing her eyes and thrusting a sapphire amulet in her younger sister's direction. "I…I do admit, I've no idea how to use it."

Elizabeth swallowed. She recognized it from the old magic supply research center, it was a location crystal. If it was crushed or smashed, it would take whomever closest to the desired location of the caster. A clever, non-traceable transportation method (unless thwarted by legitimate tracking magic, in which case it might not be so useful) that was often used by military personnel to cover the tracks of an oncoming ambush.

"Break it." Elizabeth instructed firmly.

"A-are you sure?" Margaret asked worriedly.

"Yes. You will tell father and Veronica that I love them, yes? And Gilthunder too." Elizabeth said flatly, mind-numbing calm seeping throughout her body. It was like her soul had already accepted death, and she had nothing left to feel but cool apathy. It was a harsh feeling, Elizabeth disliked it, but preferred it over heart-wrenching goodbyes.

"I love you Ellie, I love you _so_ much and I'm _sorry-"_

"I know," Elizabeth echoed. "I love you too, would you tell Gil not to be sad? You too, don't feel guilty. I'm choosing this."

"Ellie…this isn't goodbye, promise me." Margaret asked.

Elizabeth stared straight through her. "Break the crystal."

"Elizabeth, promise me!" Margaret cried shrilly. Elizabeth just gave a tiny, tiny shake of her head.

"I can't promise you that, I'm sorry." She said, and finally, a well-rounded, silver tear fell from her eye.

Margaret's mouth opened, then shut again, her grip on the crystal loosening.

"I…I don't think I can let you do this…" Margaret lamented, the controversy tearing at her eyes.

In one last bout of courage, Elizabeth swiped the crystal directly out of Margaret's hand and smashed it against the wall all in one fell swoop.

The crystal exploded, black smoke pouring out of the center and swirling at the base of Elizabeth's floor, licking at her ankles and sliding up her skin eerily. The smoke was freezing cold, and seemed to grasp onto her as it crawled up her body, higher, and higher…

"No! Ellie, make it stop!" Margaret screamed, batting away the smoke fruitlessly. The smoke clung to Elizabeth's body relentlessly, whirling like the eye of a hurricane and she could only watch as it devoured the rest of her with sadistic fervor.

"I love you Margaret," Elizabeth repeated, the smoke clogging up her brain and making her feel dizzy. Was it supposed to be like this? She felt sleepy, the smoke was dragging her into a comatose like state, her eyelids drooped and her hand hit the bed, limp.

Her sister screamed and she was weightless, the feeling of falling attacking her senses, panic began to seep through her mind, was she dying? She was definitely falling – she would hit the ground any second now…

She inhaled one last breath before she hit the ground, only the ground was warm and less painful than she had anticipated.

…and the last thing she remembered were two piercing green eyes and a voice telling her that everything was going to be alright. 

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**i think i just broke a fanfiction cliché record? wow am i ever proud.**

 **my first (possible) multichap in the nnt fandom (took me long enough) and pls forgive me i wrote like…78% of this at midnight last night so it might be a little weird**

 **pls review/favorite/follow for my sad writer soul to continue living! ilyy**


	2. intros

**hi! amazing, an actual update? this chapter is a lot longer than i intended, but oh wellll, hope u all enjoy**

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Light streamed through her eyelids. Elizabeth moved her weary limbs, stretching them out. They were unbelievably heavy, like she hadn't used them in years.

"What…?" she questioned aloud, fingers grazing over the top of a comforter. She was in a bed…

Only, it wasn't her bed.

The faint memory of her conversation with Margaret left a bitter taste in her mouth. Was she dead?

The bedroom was far too… _nice_ …to belong to anyone who wanted to bring her harm. It was almost excessive how nice it was. The room was slightly bigger than hers at the castle, but it had less of her belongings to feel like home. There was a bed in the center, where she was currently residing, and there was a single, crème colored dresser to the left. There was a neat little wardrobe too, if Elizabeth didn't know any better, she'd say whomever was holding her was trying to be hospitable.

A ridiculous idea, however. Who would even bother with kidnapping her if they didn't have malicious intent?

She sat up and felt blood rush to her head. That certainly wasn't natural – she clutched her head in a pained way and cringed. Surely it was a side effect of the location crystal's magic, but she couldn't know for sure.

She felt her heart jump at the sound of a knock at her door.

 _Who could that be_? Amidst her muddled thoughts she hadn't the slightest idea as to who could be at the door other than her kidnapper.

"I'm coming in," the muffled voice said, not even waiting for her to answer. Elizabeth looked down at herself and saw that she was still in her nightgown from the previous night. She supposed she could've been in worse condition.

The door opened slightly and a short young woman came in, murmuring to herself busily and all but making herself at home.

"Good morning – I hope you're feeling well." She greeted, only half interested as she opened the only window in the bedroom, letting the crisp morning air in welcomingly.

"I…" Elizabeth trailed off, confused by the interesting turn of events.

"I'm sure you'll get accustomed here soon enough – I know I was really nervous when I first got here, but everyone here is nice…for the most part anyway," she mumbled the last part and turned to face Elizabeth with a kind smile.

She had shoulder length blonde hair that was straight and neat, with golden fluid-like eyes that seemed to glow when the light of the sun hit them just right.

It was then Elizabeth realized that the girl was floating. She really needed some answers. Now.

"I'm sorry – _what_?" She asked, in a very un-princess-like manner.

The girl looked at her quizzically. "Is something wrong?"

Elizabeth felt her whole body go numb. There were other people here – did her kidnapper hoarde people, or something awful? Was she going to become a slave for the rest of her life?

"Why am I here?" She asked softly, clutching the sheets like it was her last piece of crumpled reality.

"You…well, Meliodas hasn't told me the details yet…" she pursed her finger on her chin. "I assume something happened at your home – something that you can't return to?"

"Huh?" Elizabeth asked dumbly. What on earth was she talking about?

The girl looked just as confused as she was. "Well then…why _are_ you here?"

Elizabeth felt like screaming. They weren't getting anywhere at this point.

"I don't _know_ – I was _kidnapped_!" Elizabeth shrieked. Well…technically kidnapped. Blackmailed into kidnapping would be a more accurate description.

The girl blinked once. "…What?"

Elizabeth told the girl everything that had happened the night before, pouring her heart out into every gut-wrenching detail. The girl listened with keen interest, seemingly just as confused as her.

By the time she finished, the girl had a tight, almost psychotic smile on her face.

"Would you excuse me for just one, _tiny_ minute?" She asked. Before Elizabeth could answer, she walked out the door, steadfast and headstrong.

Elizabeth stood up the second she left. She didn't nearly have time to wait for her to come back. She'd have to take matters into her own hands.

.

.

.

"What the _fuck_ is wrong with you?"

Meliodas looked at the irate female with dull interest.

"You can't just _kidnap_ people – why in _hell_ did you do that?" Elaine yelled, furious after hearing Elizabeth's side of the story. It had been much, much different from her point of view, in contrast to what Meliodas had said.

"I didn't kidnap her." He answered simply, shrugging like it was the morning's problem – not his.

"Why is she here?" Elaine simplified, placing her hands on her hips and floating just enough so that she was taller than him.

"I saved her." Meliodas replied tersely, as if he had nothing else to say on the issue.

"From _what_?" Elaine demanded.

"Morning Ban!" Meliodas outrightly ignored Elaine's question and flagged down the only person that could distract Elaine.

"Mornin' Cap'n." He drawled, dragging his hand down the banister as he walked down the steps. "Elaine," he greeted as he pretended to tip his imaginary hat.

Elaine, turned back to Meliodas, still furious. "Don't change the subject!"

He looked at her innocently. "What subject?"

"Meliodas-"

"So, Cap'n, how's the new recruit?" Ban asked casually, slinging an arm around Elaine's shoulders affectionately.

"Dunno. Haven't talked to her yet." Meliodas answered curtly.

" _And_ , it turns out, she isn't a recruit at all! _Genius_ over here kidnapped her!" Elaine shouted, gesturing to Meliodas angrily.

"Eh? Cap'n, didn't pin you as that kinda guy, but if that's the way you want it-"

"No! We are _not_ letting this slide! Meliodas! Get back here!" Elaine demanded, noticing that halfway during her speech Meliodas had begun to sneak away.

"Aw, c'mon Lanie, gimme a break. I saved her, that's all, I didn't _kidnap_ her, geez." Meliodas summarized with a charming smile. Elaine held her glare.

"Well she seems to think otherwise – you should go talk to her, you know." Elaine simmered, allowing Meliodas some slack. "And for god's sake – stay out of the kitchen!"

"She's right, you know." Ban chimed in, playing with a stray strand of her hair. "If you _really_ wanted to kill us, you could just give us the 'ol slice n' dice instead of drawing it out with your cooking." Ban made a sour face to prove his point and followed Elaine up the steps like a faithful puppy.

"Fine, I'll talk to her. _Later._ " Meliodas agreed. Elaine shot him a grateful look from the top of the steps.

"Good. Until then, I should probably give her a tour…" Elaine mused. "Ban, could you go make sure Gowther is asleep? I don't want him to freak her out."

Ban laughed coarsely. "You think that guy actually sleeps?"

"Oh – just do it!" Elaine shoved his hand away – which had been creeping ever so slowly towards her ass – and continued on her way up the stairs to get back to Elizabeth.

"Whatever the lady wants," Ban shrugged, slinking his way down to the basement where Gowther slept – or at least _stayed_ , they had yet to find out if he actually did sleep at night.

Unfortunately, by the time Elaine got to Elizabeth's room, the door was cracked open, and said female was no where in sight.

"Oh no," Elaine breathed out, for Elizabeth's sake. It was going to be a long orientation.

.

.

.

Elizabeth wordlessly slipped through the corridors, wondering how big the place actually was. It appeared to stretch on for miles, just like her castle back in Liones. Only, this place seemed to be more of a mansion if anything – there were no guards or soldiers that she had seen.

Her bare feet felt nice against the carpet, in Liones most of the floors were cool tile or stone, here is seemed much more…homely…however ironic that may sound.

Elizabeth didn't really have any idea as to what she was searching for – she just knew she had to find an exit. In case of emergency. At the moment – leaving was out of the question, it could result in Gilthunder or Margaret getting hurt – but she could certainly benefit from having the knowledge of a last-resort escape plan.

Her hands brushed an aloe plant that was growing against a massive stain glass window and she almost gasped in awe of its beauty. It towered several tens of feet above her, and its colors shone brightly from the soft rays of the morning sun – reds and blues and greens of the sort. The actual image was indiscernible from the first floor, where she was residing, but perhaps from the third floor she would be able to get a better view…

 _No,_ she chastised, glaring at her feet in shame. _I have to stay focused – find an exit._

"Excuse me," a voice from behind her inquired gently.

She whirled around in shock, she hadn't sensed anyone behind her a second ago. Yet, a tall, elegant looking woman was now standing before her. She had the same pristine beauty that Margaret had, but a different mischievous aura that put Elizabeth on edge.

"Who are you?" The woman asked, not quite accusingly, but Elizabeth got the hint that she should definitely tell her the truth.

"I-I'm Elizabeth." She answered. Judging from the woman's lack of recognition, she wasn't in a place she was supposed to be.

"Fascinating," the woman spoke, suddenly grabbing her arm and tracing a line. "You must be the new girl, right?"

"I-I'm sorry?" Elizabeth squeaked, pulling herself away in discomfort.

"Hmm…you must've wandered off. It's not like Meliodas to lose something of his so quickly." The woman observed. "Would you mind if I got a sample of your DNA?"

"Um…" Elizabeth was at a loss for words. "I…suppose so?" She regretted her answer almost immediately.

"Smashing. I'll be just one minute." The woman said with a happy glint in her amber-like eyes. She disappeared only a moment later and Elizabeth was left in stunned silence.

It didn't take more than a few seconds deliberation for Elizabeth to decide that her safest choice would be to press onward. The corridor slowly got smaller and smaller until she reached a set of stairs – one going down, and one going up. Sadly, no doors whatsoever.

She huffed sadly and decided to go down – after all, what good would a door on the second floor do her? If anything – she'd find a shelter or basement of some sort that had steps leading back outside. Downstairs was her best bet.

Her feet hit the cold rocky steps with tiny slapping noises. Instantly she felt a cool rush of dread crawl up her spine. Perhaps downstairs was not such a good idea. After all – she was dealing with a kidnapper who had struck fear in Gilthunder himself – one of the most frightening people Elizabeth knew.

Insistently, she descended the steps, her only source of light being the fading candles lining the sidewalls down the stairs. She could tell even from far away that the lower level didn't have much lighting in the first place, so she'd simply have to rely on her other senses to accompany her on this trip.

She internally shivered at the dramatic temperature drop she experienced on her way down. It was almost haunting – perhaps a demon really did live down here.

She shook her head to keep her thoughts clear of unwanted negativity. The last thing she needed was to run into _him_ – the man who had single-handedly scared both Gilthunder and Margaret into blackmail…

 _-and was the self-proclaimed deadly sin of wrath_ , that's what Margaret had said about him. A deadly sin? Wrath? Things just seemed to get more and more confusing the longer she stayed in this place. In fact – the more she traversed, the more and more appealing running away began to sound.

She heard a clinking sound in the distance and she froze. Was she being followed?

She turned around and saw nothing but the rest of the steps behind her and the winding hallway. Her conscience told her to keep moving forward, it was no use to turn back now. Go big or go home.

She stepped in something wet and she felt her skin crawl. Was that…water? She wiggled her toes in the freezing cools liquid and almost immediately retreated. She'd just go ahead and assume it was water – frankly, she didn't want to know what it truly was.

There was another clinking sound and it was then she realized she was being followed. Or she was being paranoid. Both put a wrench in her plans.

"Is someone there?" She asked aloud, wishing she had a light source to see better. She could hardly see her own hand in front of her let alone someone hunting her.

"I lost my glasses." A voice answered, catching Elizabeth off guard.

"O-oh." She said back, unsure of what else to say.

"…I don't recognize your scent. Are you an intruder?" The voice asked, monotonously.

"I-"

"Captain does not take well to intruders. I suggest you leave now." The voice recommended. She would have been more inclined to listen if the voice were a bit more empathetic.

"I-I'm sorry, could you take me to an exit? I'm a bit lost." She decided, taking the opportunity as it stood. She still didn't have a good look at who she was talking to, but her trusting nature told her that she could put her faith in them.

"Captain will kill you if he finds you down here." The voice said eerily, prompting Elizabeth's faith in the voice to diminish completely.

"I'm sorry, I just need to find a way out-"

"Gowther, is that you?"

Elizabth turned around to greet a slightly more familiar voice – the woman from the hall who had wanted her DNA, she could just barely make out her shape a few feet in front of her.

"Yes Merlin. I found an intruder." Gowther responded blankly.

Merlin sighed. "She's not an intruder – Captain brought her here."

"Alright." Gowther said. Elizabeth was a little bit miffed that he didn't apologize for clearly freaking her out – but she decided to let it go – she had bigger fish to fry.

"You're a wanderer, aren't you," Merlin inquired playfully as Gowther's footsteps faded away into the shadows.

"I…guess so." Elizabeth answered thinly.

"Well, let me take you to my room where I can get your sample. Then I'll take you to Elaine, I'm sure she wants to give you a tour of some sort," Merlin offered, flicking her hand upwards and holding her other hand out for Elizabeth to take.

Desperate to escape the creepy basement, Elizabeth placed her hand in hers.

Then, the world spun upside down and she felt the tingling sensation of falling in her gut, before her feet hit the carpeted floor safely. She opened her eyes (that she hadn't even realized were closed at the time) and blinked. She was no longer in the basement. She was in a bedroom – a messy one to say the least. Cluttered bottles and tubes and what-nots were spread all over the floor in a thick glaze. It was a miracle that someone had even managed to live there.

"Sorry about the mess, I was busy doing…experiments…" Merlin said, in a tone that made Elizabeth think twice about offering up her DNA on a silver platter.

Merlin snapped her fingers, and miraculously, the mess was gone.

"Feel free to take a seat, I just need to grab my needle…" Merlin trailed off as she burrowed her head into a wardrobe. Elizabeth nervously sat down on Merlin's bed and tapped her fingers on her lap. Wait…did she say needle?

"Here it is…" Merlin retrieved a long-looking needle from the wardrobe and showed it off to Elizabeth like it was her prized hen.

"Ah…" was the only sound Elizabeth could muster. She was used to needles, sure. Sticking them in other people was a breeze, years of working in the medical bay had taught her that. But being on the receiving end, especially to someone she hardly knew, held a sort of unsettling feeling.

"Just hold you arm here," Merlin instructed, laying her forearm flat on the bedspread and positioning her needle towards the center.

"Shouldn't you apply some pressu- _ahhh_ , or not, that's ok…" Elizabeth squeaked as she felt the needle pierce her skin.

"Oh. You must be human. Or…maybe something else? Not an elf, but you could be a succubus…" Merlin observed as she drew the blood from Elizabeth's arm. Elizabeth's eyes were shut tightly – not out of squeamishness, but out of fear that Merlin was about to do something terribly wrong.

"I-I'm fairly sure I'm human." Elizabeth gulped as Merlin drew away the needle. With a satisfied flick to the vial that now contained Elizabeth's blood, Merlin wandered back to her wardrobe, rummaging for what seemed like the umpteenth time.

"Right, right. I'm going to have a lot of fun with this…" Merlin said, almost deviously, as if she were saying 'we'll see about that'. Then she began pulling miscellaneous items from her wardrobe happily.

Awkwardly, Elizabeth licked her lips and examined her wound. Barely even there, of course, but a small dot of blood the size of a pinhead had formed there. Merlin began mumbling to herself murmurously and Elizabeth then assumed that she was free to go.

Just when she had begun to excuse herself, Merlin's door flew open to reveal a flustered looking girl.

"Merlin! Have you…oh, there you are." The girl, whom Elizabeth now recognized as the girl who she had first met, blinked and smiled at her.

"You shouldn't wander off here…bad things can happen." The girl let off a strained smile, and then looked back at Merlin. "Wait…you didn't let her have your blood, did you?"

"You're way too cautious, Elaine." Merlin chided without looking up from a book she was now studying.

"…Right. Just because I haven't given you a blood sample doesn't mean I'm _cautious_." The girl, Elaine, responded.

Merlin looked at her oddly. "You think I don't have a sample of your blood? That's rather rich."

Elaine looked horrified. "What? When did you take my blood?"

Merlin waved it off. "You were sleeping – it's fine."

Elaine's face turned red with anger, or embarrassment. Or maybe both. Probably the latter.

"What? That's _not ok_ – oh, nevermind! You, come with me." Elaine motioned for Elizabeth to follow her and for once, she complied.

"So! I see you've met Merlin…kind of the _kook_ of the group…" Elaine laughed nervously and turned the corner. "We're not all like that, trust me."

"Of course," Elizabeth agreed, not really paying attention. "So, there are a lot of you here…?"

"Not really," Elaine answered. "Just a few of us…maybe ten? Eleven, counting you now."

"Um…" Elizabeth weighed her options. "Were you…kidnapped…as well?"

Elaine laughed, light and weightlessly, like a balloon returning to the sky after a long summer's day. "No, no. You are a…special case. I'm not exactly sure what's going on with that, Meliodas is…quite the secretive little fellow. No, I stayed here of my own free will."

Elizabeth resisted the urge to laugh out loud. Of her own free will? This place was a circus – who in their right mind would choose to stay here?

Choosing her questions wisely, Elizabeth spoke once more. "And…who is the…'Captain'?" She asked, having heard that title much more frequently than she would've hoped.

"Oh. That's what some of us call Meliodas – just a nickname, I guess. He's the one who brought you here."

Elizabeth sucked in a breath. The Captain was the one who had intimidated Gilthunder – she'd certainly have to watch out for him.

But…Elaine appeared to talk about him like he was a friend. Interesting.

"How long will I be staying here?" Elizabeth asked, unintentionally allowing a sense of hope to creep into her voice.

Elaine paused, a sickeningly downcast look upon her face. "I…don't know."

"Oh." Elizabeth attempted to mask her disappointment.

"U-um, that's alright though! I'm sure you'll like it here, most people are nice, you can meet my brother, Diane, Ban…" Elaine trailed off, obviously uncomfortable with Elizabeth's predicament. She was desperate to lift her spirits, a kind, but feeble try at it though.

"And, all these people are staying by their own free will as well?" Elizabeth asked, almost bitterly. Was she the only one who was forced here through extortion.

"Yes, of course. I mean…I'm sorry, this doesn't usually happen. I promise I'll find out what that little lazy _brat_ was up to." Elaine growled the last part, cutting off her sincerity with malice.

"It's alright." Elizabeth said. It wasn't Elaine who forced Margaret's hand, after all.

"Um…we kind of have a free-for all at lunch, dinner is a bit more organized, it's at seven every night…" Elaine tapped her chin, recalling any information that might be of service to her. "…Oh! Just…trust me on this one… _don't_ eat food that Meliodas has cooked. Just… _don't_." She advised with a sickly pale look.

"I…alright-"

" _-and_ make sure never to trust Ban. He's awfully slippery, at first, but when you get to know him…well, he's still slippery, but he's…sweet…"

Elizabeth ignored Elaine's slightly smitten tone and let her eyes wander the (thankfully, much brighter) hallway back to the first floor. There were lovely paintings and archways that impressed her slightly architectural eye. The mansion was clearly aged, but not aged to the point of antiquity. Maybe even older than Liones castle. It could certainly use a new paint job, flecks of the reddish orange paint were peeling off in small clusters closer to the second floor.

While sightseeing, her eyes snagged something unfamiliar. A mirror, that was positioned close to the steps. It was gorgeous, to say the least, lined with (no doubt real) silver swirled like the waves of the ocean, and the mirror itself was surprisingly clean in contrast to the wall around it. That told her that someone was going out of their way to take care of it.

She was so enchanted by the mirror that she stopped for a moment to admire it, and only then did she see, out of the corner of the mirror, the person that was watching her, amused.

"I just realized I don't even know your name! How rude of me…huh? What are you doing?" Elaine backtracked, noticing Elizabeth who was still standing in front of the mirror.

"Who was that?" Elizabeth asked.

"What?" Elaine looked in the direction that she was staring, across from the mirror. No one was there. "Oh…it was probably Ban! He's a jokester…that one…" Elaine let out a nervous laugh.

With one last fleeting look into the mirror, she walked back with Elaine up the stairs. It was probably just her imagination. But then again – she didn't believe she'd ever seen eyes so vividly green in her entire life.

"Are you coming…?"

"Elizabeth." Elizabeth informed. "That's my name."

"Oh." Elaine smiled happily. "It's nice to meet you, Elizabeth. Allow me to show you around a bit…"

.

.

.

Shortly after Elaine had finished her tour (however limited it was, Elaine refused to go into the basement because it was quote-on-quote 'too scary', not that Elizabeth disagreed, and she didn't get to meet anyone new on the trip, sadly.) Elizabeth decided that she had to do some more exploring on her own. She still had to meet the remaining seven patrons, after all.

Including the elusive Meliodas, who was apparently the reason she was here, although she couldn't say she was looking forward to that meeting.

Of course, there was _one_ other option.

Her gaze lingered at her open window, then she shook her head vigorously. The idea of running away was unacceptable, she'd just have to suffer through whatever trials this place threw at her.

Elaine described the mansion as 'the island of misfit toys'. Supposedly, the only people that stay here are the people that aren't welcome from where they come from – the outliers, the people that are different.

This is what puzzled Elizabeth even more. In what way was she an outlier? She was just a normal girl (sort of, as normal as princesses go) living a normal life – she wasn't nearly as roughed up as Elaine described everyone to be.

She was the outlier of the outliers.

Moving on, she had yet to discover why she was dragged here, where this place actually was, and who everyone was.

She was one question away from being completely clueless. Oh well.

The clock by her door said that it was almost seven. That was when everyone was scheduled to eat – according to Elaine, of course.

Elizabeth couldn't help but feel a bitter taste in her mouth. She had absolutely _no_ intention of joining them for dinner, even with Elaine's extra efforts to reach out to her. Elaine was definitely a kind person, the kind of person Elizabeth would seek out as a friend under normal circumstances. However, these circumstances were dire ones, and she couldn't allow herself to be weak now. No, she had to be strong, for Gilthunder, and for Margaret.

She shifted on her bedspread, not wanting to get too comfortable. She had to keep her guard up. Something about the whole situation just wasn't right, the math wasn't anywhere near adding up and it was driving her _crazy_ -

 _Knock, knock, knock._

Elizabeth's eyes widened as she jumped forward on her bed, pretending to be asleep.

 _Knock, knock, knock._

Oh. So maybe they weren't going to just walk in.

Elizabeth sat up, a little bit embarrassed by her strong reaction.

"Um…yes?" She asked softly.

"Are you…coming down for dinner?" A gentle voice inquired, Elizabeth immediately recognized it as Elaine's.

"Uh…sorry, I'm…not all that hungry. Maybe tomorrow." She faked a cough and hid under the blankets like a child.

"Um…alright. Are you sure?" Elaine asked hopefully. Elizabeth was tempted to change her mind, she had been really kind, after all. But her resolve still stood, she couldn't get attached, not until she knew exactly what was going on.

"Yes. I'm really sorry. She lied, curling her hands into fists and lightly punching the mattress.

She listened for Elaine's footsteps to disappear, but then shortly after she remembered her floating habit.

Right. She totally forgot to ask about that whole…deal.

She brushed a piece of her long, silver hair behind her ear and chewed on her bottom lip anxiously. What was she supposed to do now? If she went exploring, like she had wanted to, she'd definitely get caught by someone down there. But she couldn't stand being cooped up in this room much longer…

She stood up with nerve-wracking speed and stuck her head out the window like it was her only source of oxygen. Standing on her tip-toes, she inhaled the outdoors desperately, wishing she could go outside and smell the flowers, or just be _free_.

She looked down towards the ground, it was really, really far down there. She almost got a vague sense of vertigo just fro, staring.

She looked up and decided now was as good a time as ever to get a view of the landscape. If she turned her head far enough to the side, there was nothing but thick, deciduous forest surrounding the mansion. Farther out, she could almost see the glimmer of a lake, and possibly even the Doran Mountain range, which was only a few hundred miles from Liones.

Right. Just a few…hundred…miles…

He hung her head and sighed, pressing the back of her hair against the cold wall.

She was trapped here, for good.

She wouldn't last a day in the woods, she knew herself well enough to say that. And any mode of transportation wouldn't be fast enough to get her past that lake before anyone noticed her absence.

It was a prison – neatly shrouded as a pretty mansion, but she could tell by the landscaping that that was its true purpose. To keep people there that normal people, people like her, would have nightmares about.

She was a butterfly in a dragon cage.

…and defeating a dragon didn't come easy to someone with breakable wings.

Her breath started coming out in rasps. What if these people were cannibals, or something else terrible? What did they want with her? To keep her as a sex slave?

She'd heard stories of both girls and boys being captured and tortured by people, sick, sick people who wanted nothing but to see and inflict pain. Had she fallen into a trap like that? Was she nothing but an ignorant child? Tricked by the glimmer of the fool's gold beneath her sandals?

 _Bang!_

Her head swiveled to the source of the noise and her whole body jumped in response. Was someone trying to break into her room?

 _Bang!_ Another fluid-like noise, only it didn't sound threatening. Just like someone was very slowly, very strongly knocking at her door.

She wasn't quite sure what to say, or if she was even imagining this whole scenario in her head.

"Who's…there?" She asked, crawling on all fours onto her bed and peering closer to the door.

"Can I come in?" The voice asked, this time, she was surprised to note that she did not recognize the voice. At least not at first.

"I…" She weighed her options. Let the mystery person in – she could be eaten, kidnapped again, or something of the sort. Leave the door closed, and she could be marked as uncooperative and get murdered.

Elizabeth grabbed a pillow and squished it in between her knees and her chest. Neither of her options sounded fantastic, but at the same time her mind wasn't exactly looking at the pros.

Oh, what did she have to lose, anyway.

"…Yes." She answered. Then she braced her self for some sort of miraculous explosion that would leave her in pieces.

The door opened casually. "Yo."

She lifted her face out of her fluffy pillow to examine the visitor. It only took her eyes a second of lingering to realize it was the person in the mirror that she saw on her tour with Elaine.

He reached his arm up and for a second she thought he was going to hit her. She flinched and he paused.

"Whoa, relax. Here." He tossed her something and it landed next to her on the mattress. She cautiously touched it, and she recognized it instantly as an apple. He had brought her food.

She regarded the apple as if it were poison. Because it definitely could be, she couldn't afford to let her guard down.

The boy took heed of her hesitance and sighed, plopping down next to her on the bed comfortably. She made a tiny bit of effort to scoot away from him, wary that he could be an evil demon lord from hell. Even though he just looked like a young boy.

"Are you Ban?" She asked quietly, recalling Elaine's guess as to who he was during the mirror fiasco. The boy laughed like she had said something rather funny.

"No. I'm actually kind of offended that you'd think that…" he joked, examining his knuckles dully.

She said nothing. She had no more guesses as to who he was. He wasn't near menacing enough to be the almighty demon that had threatened Gilthunder, she could say that at least. Maybe he was Elaine's brother…what was his name again…

He looked at her disappointed that she wasn't engaging him in conversation.

"Not a talker? Alright, alright, I get it. You're still adjusting. That's fine…" He sat up slowly and stared at her with those vibrant green eyes, instantly succeeding in making her uncomfortable.

"Do you need something?" She asked, almost ashamed of being so rude.

"Aren't you gonna eat?" He asked blatantly. "You haven't eaten since yesterday, I _know_ you're hungry."

She wasn't hungry, actually. It was true that she hadn't eaten anything , but she was afraid that if she did it wouldn't stay down.

He blew air out of his nose childishly. "Look, I get you're upset. But you should know that I wouldn't do something like this if I didn't have a reason."

Her mind began whirring. _He_ had done this? Then that means…

"-and, starving yourself really isn't going to accomplish anything." He ended with a 'what-are-you-going-to-do-now' eyebrow raise. She went rigid. _This_ was the person that had pulled off her kidnapping without a hitch? This… _boy_?

And then, he dared to say that he had a _good reason_ to do this? How delusional was he?

She felt her knuckles whitening against the pillow, any more pressure and it might pop like a feathery balloon.

"Why did you take me?" She asked vacantly. He stiffened a bit, but regained his composure at a remarkable speed. She could already tell that he was good at hiding his emotions – and he had most likely already prepared an answer to her question.

"I had to." He said, before flipping onto his side and staring up at her face.

She wanted to scream at him. He was dodging the question with stupid, basic answers that even a toddler could think of.

She was angry at him, more angry than she'd ever been in her life. But she was a princess, professionally trained to bottle up that anger and put a smile on that pretty face.

She shut her eyes for a few seconds too long. He became aware of her broiling anger and considered leaving.

"You _had_ to." She repeated coldly. She looked at him and he offered her a peaceful grin, reminding her of Hauser when he'd sneak into the kitchen and eat all the cookie dough before it could reach the oven.

He felt no guilt for what he had done – a daunting conclusion that Elizabeth dreaded coming to.

"Elizabeth," he began, but she cut him off, abandoning the princess 101 she had lived by her whole life.

" _Don't_." She said thickly. "Just _don't_."

He stopped, analyzing whether or not he should continue to prod her. Then, he let out a long, deep breath, a telltale method of calming that Elizabeth easily recognized.

"I'll come back later,' he said, which to her, translated to 'you'd better cooperate soon'.

She only looked down at her pillow and listened to him leave quietly. So that was _Meliodas_. The Captain.

She shuddered at the thought of people actually respecting him. Elaine even seemed to be _fond_ of him.

She just didn't understand it – she _couldn't_ understand it.

Frustrated, she began ripping blankets off of her bed and throwing them onto the floor. Sheets, pillows, and covers soon followed. Now that her bed was completely naked, she stopped to admire her work. A pile of misshapen linens lay before her, and she had to say that she was proud. Sadly.

She exhaled loudly, kicking her legs up and flopping back down onto the bed. Her eyes lazily followed the light of the fading sun and trained onto the window.

The _open_ window.

She felt her insides turn at the thought boiling in her brain. She looked back down at the pile of blankets and the thought grew stronger.

 _No,_ she thought, viciously destroying the idea where it stood. _I can't._

 _You can_ , the annoying part of her brain insisted, _it'll be easy_!

One of her disobedient hands reached out and grazed the lining of the bed sheet. If she could just tie it well enough…

 _No!_ Her mind scolded, much more frantically. _Elizabeth, if you do this, not only will_ _ **you**_ _die, but Gilthunder and Margaret as well!_

Curiously, she began pulling the bed sheet up and twisting it tightly. It was fairly long, once it was all stretched out. Just long enough to…

She glanced at the open window. And then, she knew. The rational part of her brain had somehow died of a stroke. She was doing this. Whether she liked it, or not.

With newfound resolve, she made quick work of the rest of the blankets, tying them together tightly and pulling at the knots for a double-tap.

Once all of the blankets and sheets were connected, she tied them to the metal hook near the window, probably meant for jackets or something, although it looked awfully medieval.

She tested the makeshift rope by pulling it with all her might (which was sadly, not that much. The only muscle tone she had developed was from moving books to and from the library) and when it didn't give, she figured she'd get a bit more exercise pushing her luck.

She began feeding inches of the blankets out the window, watching it go down, down, down, until the entire length was spent. It didn't reach the ground, sadly, but from where Elizabeth was standing it looked like she'd be able to make the jump.

She moved the bed to the side so she could boost herself out the window, all the while white-knuckling the blankets in a frightened manner. As she stuck her head outside, she felt a wave of vertigo hit her like a sledgehammer. It was _really_ far down. She didn't realize how high up the second floor was until she saw it from this angle.

Once again, the _dumb_ part of her brain won the argument and she wrapped an elbow around the blankets, for one last test drive to see if it could hold her weight. The sheets held strong.

She swallowed everything remotely rational and mature inside of her, tentatively reaching one bare foot out to the rope and then, a millisecond afterward, throwing the other foot next to it. All of her weight was relying on the blankets now, and she had only a few seconds of bravery left to spare as she began making the climb downwards, to the beautiful, beautiful ground.

Her arms started aching from gripping the sheets too roughly and she exhaled, attempting to keep herself calm. She'd be fine, she'd be ok…holy _shit_ the ground was far away…

Closing her eyes and keeping her nervous system tranquil, she continued lowering herself to the grass below. She was almost to the end of the line now, she was running out of rope to hold onto.

And, unfortunately, the ground was still fairly far.

"Shit," she whispered, her swearing was reserved for intense situations only. In fact, swearing itself made her uncomfortable, but she figured she could spare an uncomfortable moment for this.

She stared down, wondering what the hell she was supposed to do next. Her arms were far too tired to make the trip back up. She was trapped.

She pouted and looked down at her legs. _Sorry, ankles._ She apologized inwardly as her hands released the blankets.

She landed on her feet, and then fell to her face from the force of the fall. She felt a jolting pain resonate from her left ankle, it was sprained, at the least. Oh well. She knew how to set it, and it would heal with time as long as she got rest.

Of course, rest was the one thing she couldn't give herself.

Her eyes lingered on the lake, at least a few miles ahead. If she tried to go straight, they'd surely catch her, it was a flat plainland that was prime for hunting – it left no cover for her to hide behind.

That left the forest that surrounded the remaining part of the mansion, which didn't excite her to any extent.

Something about the thick shrouded trees and fog made her skin crawl. It was like the woods were _trying_ to scare her away.

But she didn't really have a choice at this point.

With one final, parting look at the mansion that had imprisoned her, she set off for the forest.

She'd rather die in there than spend the rest of her days at the mercy of them.

* * *

 **welllllllll there u have it, my exposition chapter (?) writing mel actually killed me, he has the stupidest personality ever. it makes me sad to call him my son.**

 **anyways, one thing about me is i like to respond to reviews in-chapter. so...responses! they go in chronological order from oldest-newest**

* * *

Guest: thank you! I hope this chapter satisfied ur thirst

Sullina3: thank you! one good thing about being in an empty fandom is u get to use all the cool aus. thank you so much for reviewing!

Guest: here you goo, nice and long ;)

TailGatomonX3:...we've already talked about this, but still THANK U SO MUCH YOUR REVIEWS ARE LOVELY ASDFGH

Nyawalker14: here you go, and thank you so much!

Guest: thanks!

Narutogod123: THANK U OMG i hope u like this chapter :)

sanaa11: thank you! i will try my best to update soon :3

LightTheFlame: thank youuu! i hope i met your expectations :) (also i saw u wrote a fic i should probably read it at some point...sorry for my lazy assholeishness)

Angel 'Ruby' Sapphire: thank you! hope u like this chapter!

hiyomi: thank youuu, i try :) your review means a lot to me! (ew sorry im awkward)

himeka: thank you! i hope u liked this!

Wolves silver wind: thank you! have fun with this update! and your pack, i guess!

Guest: thank you! (sorry this one is a semi cliffhanger too, bleck)

Kiri: i was SO EXCITED THAT U ACTUALLY READ NNT asdfgh and ur kiane af good good join us

owllover1111: thank you v much!

Kiri: omf at king vs meliodas NOW I REALLY WANNA KNOW WTF HAPPENED TO KING'S WINGS? AND ELAINE LIKE REALLY

Kiri: nice analysis lmfao. yeah, this fandom is pretty dry whan it comes to fics, oh well, i guess. after the battle was pretty cute! and his plea! (eh im melizabeth trash for fics) I STILL HAVE TO READ FRICKIN SHAVED ICE its been recommended by many and im just...sigh...so lazy ALSO OMG UR A GRADE BELOW MY BROTHER heeyy

* * *

 **that's about it! feel free to pm me cuz im pretty nice, or ask me any questions u may have!**

 **review to redeem my soul!**

 **-katie**


	3. great escape

**sorry for delay pls enjoy its like 7k words and im dead inside**

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Elizabeth considered herself to be of the smart variety, or at least _sane_ in any sorts. But this was a _stupid_ move on her part.

For one thing – her ankle felt like it had been doused in flames. It was no doubt sprained if not broken, but if there was one thing she could do, as a princess, was fake a smile and look pretty while bearing through the pain. Just a few more steps, and she'd be covered by the shade of the trees.

The towering, haunting trees with twisted branches like the arms of spiderwebs beckoned her no better than a room full of flames. They smelt of musk and age - an ancient scent that she herself couldn't specifically identify. She strongly suspected that the woods were engulfed with a magic of some sorts - she'd always been rather magic-sensitive, something that made her stand out from her other two sisters - but the aura of the forest was setting her on edge, even more than she already was, considering she was on the run.

She reluctantly limped forward into the woods, swallowing one last breath of fresh air before disappearing into the darkness that she so despised.

...And the second she stepped forward, she knew she'd made a mistake. but there was no going back now. She couldn't go back, there was no chance of her rescaling her makeshift rope with her ankle as impaired as it was - there was only going forward, and she'd just have to deal with whatever was thrown at her with her head held high.

The trees blacked out almost all of the light - what little of it there was, seeing how sunset was commencing when she had actually climbed down from her room.

What was especially strange - in Elizabeth's humble opinion - was the lack of sound. It was like the trees worked as a barrier between her and the outside world - she heard no birds, no wind, no nothing, just the sound of her footsteps and short breaths.

There had to be _something_ living in these woods besides the trees, right? Bunnies, squirrels-

Her thoughts were cut off by the daunting sound of breaking tree branches up ahead. There was something alright. Something...big.

She half-consciously moved sideways just to avoid the sound, hopefully still going in the right direction, which would ultimately be towards the Doran Mountain Range, where, if her calculations were correct, there would be at least one small village near the base of the range. She'd work on getting home from there.

The only problem was, whether or not she'd make it to the mountains before she starved to death and/or was brutally murdered by a creature of destruction - both seemed equally likely in the silent forest.

Another branch crackle startled her from her thoughts and prompted her legs to move a little bit faster, even in light of her now puffy ankle. She definitely wasn't alone in this forest. Even though it's silence was deafening, she definitely wasn't alone.

On that unsettling note, she began to push her way past a thick brush area, twigs and thick branches barred her way intently, as if to warn her to turn back. Unfortunately, she couldn't afford to take advice from a tree.

She reached forward to move a particularly thick piece of bark out of her way when her hand touched something unfamiliar. She retracted almost immediately, only to find that whatever she had touched was remarkably sticky.

"What is…" she trailed off, examining her hand, now coated with the silvery wisps of sticky, fabric-like string. "That's...interesting."

She rubbed the stuff onto a nearby tree and pushed forward, shoving panicked thoughts about whatever that was out of sight and out of mind.

She had nothing to worry about. Just keep pushing forward...right?

... _Wrong_. Her ankle protested loudly to her quickened pace and she winced as she forced herself to take a small breather by an overturned log overtaken by ivy and brush.

Dissatisfied with the red tinge to her skin and the obvious, panging ache, she allowed herself to sit down and examine it closer. She'd have to bind it if she truly wanted it to heal right – the last thing she needed was a deformity that she wouldn't be able to handle. After years of meticulously training with the nurses in the medical ward, she knew exactly what she needed, the only problem was resources, and time. Two things she had a distinct lack of.

She huffed and ghosted her hand across the surface of the skin, cringing at the burn it brought. That wasn't good –she'd need something to brace it so that she wouldn't risk the bone breaking.

Just before she could make an attempt to find a brace – another branch crackled, closer this time. She was being followed – and this time, it wasn't just paranoia.

Her initial thought was to panic – to run back to the mansion and pray they hadn't noticed that she was gone, _anywhere_ was safer than this forest – even the eeriness of the basement was preferred to the haunting silence and echoes of the woods.

Another branch broke and she stood up, eliciting a small gasp as a spike of pain drove through her ankle. She'd just have to push through, even at the risk of a broken bone.

She looped her arm around a tree branch and tested its durability briefly, it seemed sturdy enough. The smartest thing that she could do for her own health was to cease mobility and take shelter in the trees. Hopefully whatever was following her had a fear of heights, or it may very well be the last night she spent alive.

She placed her foot against the nearest branch – the functional foot, and swung herself upward, cursing her lack of arm strength, or strength in general. That was one thing about being a princess, physical activity wasn't welcomed in that sort of community.

She halfway managed to sit herself up against a particularly large branch, just enough so that she felt she could relax.

Swinging her wounded leg over the branch to secure herself further, she exhaled and leaned her head against the trunk, breathing out in a strained manner.

Just before she could take a moment to rest her eyes, her hand touched something.

Her eyes widened and she jerked her hand away from the source, but it stuck diligently. It was the same, silky silver substance, she was so distracted with climbing, she hadn't even noticed that it completely _covered_ the haggard, twisted branches of the tree she had just scaled.

And at this altitude, it became clear as to what exactly she was touching – and, what she was currently surrounded by.

A giant, intricate spider web, spanning across the treetops like a canvas of ceramics.

And she was right in the middle of it all.

"Well," she breathed out, retracting her hand and swallowing hard as she watched the reverberations of her body movements travel through the silky strands – a signal. "This isn't good, is it?"

.

.

.

Elaine wasted no time giving Meliodas the earful he deserved after returning from Elizabeth's room bearing no distraught princess.

"You _scared_ her!" She accused, hands perched on her tiny hips and eyes flaring wildly.

"Did _not_ ," he defended, a grim, expressionless look on his face. "Well….maybe a little bit."

"Ugh, you…you're impossible. You know, she's going to resent us if you keep up this 'I'm a mystery' dealio you're so obsessed with." Elaine huffed, massaging her temple and strongly suspecting she had gained a few gray hairs from the man's suspicious antics.

"She'll come around," he reasoned, but even he had his doubts. His gaze lingered on the pale color of her door for a few more agonizingly long seconds before he returned downstairs, where the rest of the crew had already started eating, no doubt.

"Already screwed up, eh Cap'n?" Ban asked, lips quirked up in a troublesome smile as he winded from around the corner to travel with Meliodas and Elaine down the steps. "Nice going there."

"If he wasn't so ridiculously _stubborn,_ maybe she'd come around to you, you know. After I talked with her, I have a sneaking suspicion that she hates your guts." Elaine informed him diligently.

"That so, huh?" Meliodas responded emotionlessly.

"You're so aggravating. No wonder she hates us – you keep everyone in the dark." Elaine grumbled. At that, Meliodas cracked a small smile.

"What's that smug little smirk for? If you're up to something, Meliodas, I swear to-"

"Ban," Meliodas said coolly, fully ignoring Elaine's reprimand. "Race you to dinner."

Ban grinned. "Wanna put something' on the line there, Cap'n? I win, you gotta tell us the deal with Angel up there – if you won, well…." Ban cracked a dry smile at Elaine, showing her that he was taking this monumental risk for her – "I'll let you cook me up somethin' for breakfast, yeah?"

Meliodas, without making distinct eye contact, cracked a grin. "You're on."

And with that, they both left Elaine in the dust – or, more like _destruction._ The hallway would have to be repaired tomorrow, no doubt.

"Boys," Elaine mumbled as she rushed to catch a rare painting from crashing to the ground, the sheer resonance of their race nearly crashing it to the floor.

"Elaine." A calm, collected voice that made Elaine's hair stand on end spoke from behind her. She whirled around, painting still clutched in her tiny fingers, and let out a small squeak of fear.

"Gowther…what are you-"

"I detect a disturbance." He spoke without regarding her confusion. "Merlin's seal has been tampered with."

"Merlin's…" Elaine trailed off, a sense of realization hitting her like a splash of cool winter air, "…seal? But how could that…" her eyes wandered up the steps. "Oh no."

Elaine almost dropped the painting in panic. She raced to Elizabeth's door with fervor, knocking on the solid wood frame impatiently.

"Uh-uh…Elizabeth? You in there?" She asked, voice slightly wavered in her hysterics. "Oh…. _please_ let her be in there…"

"Elaine. I sense no life forms currently in that room. I strongly suspect that the life form inside has either ceased to live or has evacuated the premises." Gowther spoke robotically.

" _Dammit-_ " Elaine pressed her hand against the door, and watched it react to her magic. The wood creaked for a single moment, and then the door opened obediently.

"Elizabeth? Are you in…oh god…" Elaine felt dread settle in the pit of her stomach at te sight of the bed sheets absence, and reappearance by the metal hook by the wondow.

"Oh no oh no oh _no-_ "

"I sense high levels of stress, is it perhaps the fact that the girl is most likely dead at this point in time?"

"Sh-shut up already! I'm thinking, I'm thinking…." Elaine floated upwards to check out the window. No sign of Elizabeth, just the telltale line of blankets reaching down to the ground below. The gap between the sheets and the ground was rather large, especially for a human with no power of flight like herself. She could be wounded.

"Are you distraught to the fact that the girl was most likely the cause of the seal's breaking?" Gowther inquired, tilting his head to the side curiously. "Interesting. You seem to be enamored with this girl, and yet you have hardly interacted with her."

"We need to get Meliodas." Elaine whispered, voice frighteningly low pitched. "Now."

"Captain's assistance is required? What for?" Gowther asked her.

"If we don't get to her soon," Elaine mumbled, ignoring Gowther's feigning questions. "If she's in those woods…well….let's just hurry."

"Understood." Gowther said stoically. "I will contact Captain right away."

"Good. Get my brother, too. Those woods can be…" Elaine ended her sentence irregularly with the paling of her skin. "Well, there was a reason Merlin had a seal around it. let's go."

.

.

.

Elizabeth realized that she was doomed only seconds after observing that she was in the middle of a gigantic spider web. She was the perfect prey – wounded, hopeless, and just plain old useless. What was a princess supposed to do in this situation? Wait in hopes that her knight would arrive in time before she became the main course?

Granted, Elizabeth was no normal princess – she refused to be the one to wait for her death. If she was going to become spider meal, you better damn well believe that she would try and get at least one of them to go down with her.

She broke a pointed, thick twig off of the strangulated tree, before wrapping it in spider webs until it was fat enough to sustain what she needed. Now….

Elizabeth bit her lip and held out her finger. Her father had told her long ago that magic was a dangerous tool – it could be used for good or evil, and its sway could be more powerful than the current of time itself. That alone had kept her from performing any strong spells as she grew up – but all young princesses have a sense of curiosity, and she could recall nights where she would hide in the cellar and use magic to make tiny sparks dance against the hard cement floor when no one was looking. Magic was a powerful, corrupt force, but at this point, Elizabeth didn't really have any other choice.

Her finger glowed in the tiniest bit, until a spark jumped from the tip and leapt onto the webs entangled onto the stick, until she had a decent flame cooking on the edge. Light. By now, the sun had retreated past the horizon line and her only defense and source of light was the makeshift torch.

Slowly adjusting herself so that her torch was illuminating the glistening webs, she surveyed the area, knowing full well that any spider that made this web wouldn't be the size of her pinky – this was no problem she could solve by blowing at it until it flew away. And this certainly wasn't a problem that could be solved by calling to her knights for assistance.

The light caught the shadows of the tree branches like a dream catcher, and each shadow looked less and less like something benevolent and more and more like something that goes bump in the night. Paranoia surfaced in her brain like a life jacket and she clung to it for salvation.

She moved her hand out just far enough to grasp another branch so she could climb higher for a better view, but at the last second, the branch cracked in half and fell to the forest floor with a resounding, hauntingly muffled _thump._

And thus, she told every creature – possible giant spiders included – her exact location.

She let out a shaky breath as she watched a particularly thick branch, close to fifty feet away, move with lazy stillness. It made no sound, only bent and flickered to the shape of the fire.

Of course, being as it was, she no longer assumed that she was watching a branch move, and instead, she was watching the giant, looming leg of a spider approach her like she was the simplest of prey.

You'd think being predated would jolt some sense of adrenaline in Elizabeth's system – but instead, she froze. Her blood felt chilled, like it had spent an eternity buried under a glacier and it was just now feeling the heat of the summer bearing down.

The spider's body remained concealed by branches and fragments of web, but she knew that she'd only have a minute, if not less, to make a grand escape.

Or, a final stand.

Really, neither was ideal, but solutions weren't exactly abundant.

Her hand shook and she moved the torch forward, dread settling in her stomach like old rainwater. As one final move, she touched the fire to the webs and watched it slowly ignite, beautiful fury. It ate at the webs and they crumbled pathetically under the wrath of the flames. The fire began to spread, slowly at first, but soon, it was to the next tree.

That was when she realized that she may had just unintentionally set a forest fire.

A shadow passed over her and she felt all of the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end.

She was a butterfly caught in a spider web – and she had led it directly to her.

Her breath caught and everything was silent, save for the crackling of the flames in the trees ahead of her.

Her eyes scanned the area around her so fast she saw stars – where was it? Would it come from above, or below? Was it watching her right then? Biding its time?

Her eyes flickered upwards, and that was when she saw it.

-and she knew then that no one could save her. So she did what any person in that exact situation would do – she screamed.

.

.

.

"What do you mean she's _gone_?" Meliodas asked her, one hand was resting comfortably on the handle of his sacred treasure whilst the other was curled into a fist, pressed up against the hard wood of the dinner table. The wood beneath ached in pain from the pressure he applied to it, but stood firmly after years of strategic steel reinforcement. The dinner table could be a wild place sometimes.

"She's not in her room, there's a rope leading down, and Gowther says Merlin's seal is broken." Elaine informed him all in the span of a few seconds. She could accurately sense his anger and wanted to do her best to soothe him – Meliodas's anger was a rare, exquisite thing, that had to be dealt like fine china, slowly and carefully, unless you want your world to shatter.

"Merlin's seal is broken? I'm surprised that a human like her has had the strength to do that – even _I_ get fazed by it," King said to Elaine confusedly.

"You think she's in the woods?" Ban asked Elaine grimly. "Then there's no way she's still alive, at best, maybe we'll find a shred of her cloth – hey, Capain, where are you going?" Ban was interrupted as Meliodas drew his sword and turned around to head towards the front gate.

"To find her." He said simply. "This is my fault – I can't leave her alone out there."

"You're damn right it's your fault!" Elaine fumed, before softening up once more. "Harley, go with him, I want you to to bring her back safe and sound, you hear me?"

"Why me? And don't call me that," King scowled, hugging his sacred treasure and floating up to his sister's height. "Why don't you send Ban to do it? You're the one who's got him whipped anyhow-"

Ban whapped King out of the air like a whiffle ball and shook his head. "Quiet, kid. I ain't whipped."

King made an effort to pull himself up from the ground. "Did Captain already leave?"

"He-" Elaine turned around to look for Meliodas, but King was right, he had already left. "…I guess so. Now go, he needs at least a little help if he is going into those woods." Elaine shivered.

"Fine." King grumbled as he lethargically floated towards the front gates. "I hate the woods though, so you'll owe me for this one."

"Whatever," Elaine waved him off with a scowl. Ban watched smugly as the fairy boy disappeared.

"Twenty bucks says he comes back needing a change of pants~"

" _Ban-_ "

"I know, I know, be more _nice_ to him, I will. I'm just doing what _any_ good brother in law would do~" he teased her, hinting at the fact that they were married instead of just sort-of roommates with sort-of crushes.

"Sh-shut up." She mumbled, a large blush canvassing her cheeks prettily. Ban's laughter filled the empty halls, and then they waited.

.

.

.

"Captaaaain," King called, he was only a hairsbreadth away from entering the forest from hell, and still, there was no sign of his diligent Captain.

"Geez, he really is dedicated," King said to himself, cautiously hovering into the forest. Instantly, he was cloaked in darkness, and even more eerie – silence. He could only hear his own breath, and he could only see the glow of the moon above the twists of the tree branches.

"Captain?" He called again, before changing Chastiefol into a glowing lantern. He'd need the light to see exactly what he was going up against. That was the thing with the woods – it changed every time.

It was troubling to him that Merlin's seal was now broken – she had worked fairly hard on keeping the creatures that resided in the forest in the forest – and if there was any chance that those creatures could make it back to the house…

He shuddered and scanned the area about. Nothing seemed out of place, just trees and branches.

There was _one_ thing that was off….

King inhaled deeply, the cold air tickling his senses, before he made a confused expression.

It smelt - extremely faintly – of _smoke_.

And that's when he heard the scream.

.

.

.

Elizabeth barely had enough time to react when the spider jumped down over the tree so it was straddling the trunk, staring at her with what seemed to be tens of thousands of eyes. Her hands shook so hard she was fairly sure it was causing the tree to tremor, but she couldn't be sure.

She kicked herself backwards with her good leg so hard that she actually fell backwards and towards the ground. She hit the forest floor with a sickening thump and she felt her head spin from the impact.

The spider jumped down with ease, almost silently, and crept closer to her, curious. It probably didn't get a lot of people looking like her this deep into the woods, she would make for an exotic meal.

Too dizzy to stand, she weakly reached for her torch which she had lost during the fall, but sadly, it still resided in the tree. She could smell the smoke from the fire now, it was stronger than ever, but the spider seemed less than fazed. It was easily twice her size, and moved with a hypnotizing speed that made her legs freeze up involuntarily.

Back at the castle, spiders were a common enemy. They littered the old research facilities and the hallways, and Elizabeth had a particular dislike for them, not solely based on the fact that they were creepy looking bug demons. Her fear rooted from some spider venom – toxic, and horrifying, back in the nursing ward she'd seen people die from the bite of just one, tiny spider.

From the looks of it, this spider would be different from anything she'd combated before. But she'd just have to be brave.

Easier said than done, of course, when one of your legs is immobile and the rest of your limbs are frozen in place.

Eyes fixed on the enemy before her, Elizabeth began to pull herself backwards, closer to the flames, praying that the spider would shy away from the heat like she so wanted to, but it seemed to hold no ill will towards the heat. It continued to move, occasionally blinking a few of its hollow eyes and studying her.

Something clear and bubbly dripped from its mouth, and she instantly recognized it as something to be aware of. No doubt it was poison – probably nerve based, if she got any of it in her system, she'd be paralyzed – and coincidentally, dinner as well.

The spider leapt forward all of a sudden in an attempt to snatch her, but she rolled over just in time to see it crash into a tree behind her. Fueled with the sudden burst of extra adrenaline, she pulled herself up and was now in a standing position against the spider, still delirious from the small beating it took.

The smoke was thick now, she could barely see anything clearly. That had been a wrong move on her part.

The spider moved forward faster than she could comprehend, and suddenly, she was trapped up against the bark of a tree. The spider's thick legs were on either side of her, trapping her. On top of that, the fire was almost directly behind her, she could feel it, hot on her skin – why wasn't the spider intimidated by it? Was it blind?

The spider twitched and she could almost swear that it was smiling at her – _haha! Caught you, little butterfly! –_ and she shut her eyes so tight she could feel tears welling up behind them. This was it. One dumb mistake, and she gets eaten by a stupid giant _spider-_

In the last few seconds she believed she would live – she wished for the safety of her sister and Gilthunder. She only hoped that the monster of a man who'd taken her could find something in his heart to let them live – it was her idiotic fault that she'd run away, not theirs.

She could hear the spider making clicking noises as it leaned in to seal the deal with a poisonous kiss.

She made a small whimpering sound a second before she could die. How pathetic. She wished she could've at least done something worthwhile, instead of just setting the forest on fire and then redundantly dying.

It was right then when she heard the sickening crunch, distinctly, like someone had broken a bone.

Oh no. It was her, wasn't it? The spider was going to break her leg and drag her to its nest where it would eat her, slowly-

She moved her leg experimentally. It still hurt, from the sprain but not broken.

She cracked an eye open and nearly choked on a gasp.

It was him. He had come for her.

He had a long sword with odd circles cut out of it in one of his hands, and he had a different sword that she didn't recognize strapped to his back. His hair was as messy as she remembered it being, and he stood in front of her like a stone wall.

It was strange – even though he was just one person, she felt like with him standing in front of her, nothing could ever touch her.

"You sure are easy to find," he told her, swinging the sword around in a playful arc while turning his head so she could see one of his stark green eyes.

She blushed a little bit out of embarrassment, lighting the woods on fire was a bit of an unconventional way to call attention to herself.

It was strange – Elizabeth had seen fire spread before, and usually it leapt from branch to branch with ease, but so far, the fire had spread somewhat lazily – it was like the forest was choking the life out of it.

The spider, which must have been hit by Meliodas, made a strange hissing sound and jumped up into the trees. The dim lighting of the stars and the dying flames made it hard to decipher where the creature had gone, but Meliodas seemed satisfied enough. He shoved his sword back into its holster and whirled around to face her.

"Now, now, now….looks like I'm gonna have to punish you…"

Elizabeth felt her eyes widen to the size of dinner plates. "Wh-what?"

He laughed, clear and vibrant, like she hadn't just almost died at the hands of an unnaturally large arachnid.

"Kidding. Do you always make a scene when you get mad?" He asked her, carefully observing the mess she'd made, fire included.

"I…" she trailed off, suddenly self-conscious. How did he have the uncanny ability to make everything seem ridiculously casual. "…No. This….this is a first."

He cracked a smile. Elizabeth almost forgot that she was actually furious with this man.

"Stick close. I'll get you outta here." He said to her, signaling for her to follow him. She blinked. Was he taking her back to the mansion? Or was he actually going to take her _home?_

"Where?" She begged for clarification. He said nothing, only halted his movement like he'd suddenly been frozen.

She didn't dare ask again, his dead silence was strong enough to drain all other sound out of the atmosphere. There was something particularly intimidating about his stance, too, like he was prepared to take a mountain head-on.

"Elizabeth," he said lowly, voice like gravel. His sword was halfway unsheathed – probably indicating that they weren't out of danger just yet. "Come here."

She had half a mind to listen, but with a renowned sense of caution. This was still the man who had kidnapped her, after all. Just because he made her feel safe and also had a weapon didn't mean that she should cling to him.

There was a brief sound of cracking branches and she jumped a few inches in the air, unwittingly moving closer to Meliodas and grabbing his arm tightly.

"When I count to three," he started calmly, limbs so rigid she could feel the strain of his arm muscles through his jacket. "I'm going to need you to do something…."

"S-sure…" she stuttered, ultimately deciding to trust him at this point. It was better than being eaten by spiders, right?

"Ok, good. When I count to three, I'm going to need you…" he stopped briefly to look around quickly before continuing, "I'm going to need you to take your shirt off."

It took Elizabeth a few extra seconds to process his sentence before making an obsolete choking sound. He took her flustered reaction as a good sign and began to laugh.

"Kidding. Did I scare you?" He resheathed his sword with a satisfied expression.

Elizabeth, bewildered by his twisted sense of humor, felt a somewhat out of place giggle simmer at her lips. It was sort of ridiculous – they were in the middle of a less-than-common, serious situation, and he had the nerve to try and make her laugh.

"A…a little bit," she admitted, unnerved that he had managed to wiggle his way past the awkwardness that had surrounded them before. He had made her completely disregard her hatred for him in a matter of seconds – quite the dangerous trait.

"Well, let's get out of here for real." He turned to face her with his half-smile quirked up. "I wouldn't want you to-"

His stopped talking, and all in the span of a single second he jumped forward, shoved her to the ground, and fell on top of her. She let out a small scream of surprise as he toppled down over her, his elbows propped on either side of her head protectively.

He made a groaning noise and jumped up off of her, and it was then Elizabeth realized that they had just been attacked by another spider. Meliodas bargained no more time to stand idly by, in a frighteningly fast-paced pivot, he swung his sword up and sliced the spider up like he was cutting ribbons with razor blades.

The spider hissed in pain and fell back, legs crumbling like aged stone. Elizabeth fell back, wading on her hands and crawling backwards so she couldn't get caught in the crossfire.

"Elizabeth," Meliodas said calmly, intimidating the wounded spider until it vanished into the smoky fog. "Go, I'll hold them off."

"Them?" Elizabeth heard herself ask, she didn't see any other spiders, only the dying, smothered embers of the fire that had ultimately had the life strangled out of it by the forest's atmosphere.

"Yeah. They tend to always come back, like a bad inside joke." He let out a dry, stiff chuckle before turning his back to her. "I'll deal with them, you hurry up and get out of here, I can't imagine you're ready to get eaten."

Elizabeth looked at him, peculiar smirk and all. He really was a specimen.

"I-I can't just _leave_ you," Elizabeth stammered, realizing that a multitude of enemies could overwhelm her savior, especially regarding their sheer size.

"Awe, you worried, princess? I'll be fine, now just-" His finger twitched and she froze.

"Just…come with me…" She absently tugged at his sleeve to interrupt the brief silence. She'd be lying if she said she was doing this solely based on his health, in fact, she was more worried about traveling through the forest without him. The mere aspect of running into another giant spider without protection was enough to bring her into hysterics.

He exhaled, like he was considering her request diligently.

"Alright," he spoke, a fleeting shadow passing across his irregularly pale face. "Let's get the hell out of here."

.

.

.

They were lucky enough to have missed any epic run-ins with giant spiders, however, they ran straight into a different problem very quickly.

"I don't suppose you remember the way home," he confessed guiltily.

She wanted to scream that of course she didn't, she'd only been there once in her lifetime, but at this point, yelling at her life source seemed a little bit dumb.

"No, I don't." She told him flatly. She could barely see the trees in front of her it was so dark, and by now any sources of light, including the moon and stars, had been smothered by the branches of the trees for several meters now.

"Hmm…I could have sworn that it was this way…" He pointed in a direction that simply looked like darkness, same as every other direction in that whole forest.

"Should we just wait here for the night? Getting even more lost than before seems like kind of bad idea…" Elizabeth trailed off, realizing that she had just suggested a slumber party with her creepy kidnapper.

Even in the dark, she could see his eyes light up and his eyebrows raise in the slightest.

"Am I hearing you right? Are you proposing a _sleepover_ , princess?" He asked her giddily. She resisted the urge to groan, but nodded begrudgingly instead.

"I would agree with you, but sleeping here is a bad idea. Wouldn't want the moaners to find us…."

"M-moaners?" She choked out. "What are-"

"Well," he interrupted her, a storytelling expression on his face as he studied her. "Picture the most _terrifying,_ immortal zombie-monster that lives under your bed and makes low-pitched moaning sounds in the night, just enough to keep you awake uuntil morning, and by then, you'll be so sleep-deprived, you won't even notice it when it sneaks up behind you and-"

"Stop!" She cried, covering her ears and shaking her head. "You're scaring me!"

He laughed and shook his head. "You're an easy target, Elizabeth. We're gonna get along _reeeeaaallllyyy_ well."

She didn't like the sound of that _really_.

"Plus, you have these," in a fraction of a second, he was inches away from her, his hands exploring her chest generously.

"What are you-"

" _Anyways_ ," he moved away like he hadn't just violated her personal space, "our best move is to head to the…uh…"

Her eyes crinkled in concern. His voice sounded faded, and he had yet to finish his sentence.

"Um…Meliodas? Are you…ok?" She asked him, before reaching out to tap his shoulder.

The only problem was, the second her finger made contact with his shoulder, he collapsed to the ground, defeated.

"Uh." Elizabeth echoed. "Meli….odas? You're joking…right?"

He made no movement, and Elizabeth kneeled down to poke at him some more.

That was when she saw it. How could she have not noticed before?

A gaping spider bite was latched in between his shoulder blades, slowly leaking blood and no doubt the cause of his sudden disposition. Elizabeth paled as she examined the bite, it was swollen and oddly colored.

Poison. She'd seen it before, and at this point, he could definitely die.

Elizabeth's fingers twitched anxiously. What could she do? She didn't have the necessary supplies to treat it, hell, she barely had the expertise to do it _with_ the proper supplies.

She gently flipped him over, surveying his pale face and swallowing any doubt she might've had about the whole ordeal. There was only one thing left to do.

First things first, Elizabeth grabbed a sword off of his back, she'd need something for protection in case another spider came along.

Elizabeth blinked in surprise after retrieving the sword, probably due to the fact that it wasn' even a sword at all. Just a broken handle.

Her eyes widened and she dropped the sword in shame. Did she break it? Not even five minutes in and she'd already damaged his property.

But the more she looked, the more she began to realize that the sword never had a pointed end, that was just it. A broken dragon handle.

"Weird," she lamented, but still held onto it tightly as she grabbed Meliodas's arm and threw it over her shoulder.

" _Heavy_ ," she grumbled as she lifted him up as best she could, given the mitigating circumstance of her almost broken ankle.

Elizabeth could barely maintain his weight, she was never a particularly strong person, but what she lacked in muscles she made up for in….spirit. And she was determined to haul him back to the mansion, because she'd be damned if she was the reason that he died on that night. Plus, if he was feeling overwhelmingly grateful to her after saving his life, maybe he'd consider releasing her. It would all work out fine.

If only he wasn't so _damned_ heavy, what was he eating, bricks?

She made an effort to drag him forward, making a whining noise as she did so. It really wasn't healthy for either of them to be like this, him passed out and dying, and her limping and hysterical.

She had barely made it a few feet when she began to have her doubts, the sword handle seemed less than promising in the light of protection, an her ankle was looking like giving out any minute now.

However, her determination to get Meliodas to safety diluted her pain, so she had at least enough energy to drag him to the nearest tree.

"What am I going to do with you," she huffed, slumping his body across a tree branch and breathing heavily. The ruby in the eye of the dragon handle caught her eye and she watched it glint in the moonlight. What possible use could a sword with no handle bring to the table? What made him carry it around with him so often?

She tucked the sword handle under her arm and began to lift him up again, before dropping him completely to the ground at the sight of a bright, luminous light somewhere down the woods.

"Captain?" An echoic voice called.

"Hey!" Elizabeth cried back, waving even though there was almost a guarantee whoever was out there couldn't see her. "Over here!"

The light glimmered and disappeared for a few seconds, much to Elizabeth's dismay. But then, it grew much brighter, and she saw the outline of a small boy floating towards her.

Maybe she was hallucinating. Boys don't usually fly, do they?

"Oh. You're alive." The boy accounted, and Elizabeth blanched at how surprised he sounded. "Where's captain?"

Without thinking, Elizabeth' eye flashed to his collapsed body on the ground. The boy's eyes followed her gaze before they bulged out of their sockets.

"Y-you killed him? But h-how?" The boy asked her, falling to the ground, abundantly shocked, and examining his fallen friend.

"I-I didn't! I swear!" Elizabeth squeaked. "We just….spiders! Spiders came!"

The boy looked at her semi-skeptically. "The spiders…damn, I thought we'd gotten rid of them…"

"Uh…this is a…reoccurring problem?" She felt herself ask hollowly. The boy made a shrugging motion and continued to examine Meliodas.

"He looks pretty bad, we should get him back right away," The boy snapped his finger and his light turned into a pillow. Elizabeth took that as a sign to heave Meliodas's body onto the pillow, like a makeshift gurney.

"He's been poisoned, I can probably help him, but only if I have the right tools," she told the boy. He nodded, shocking her with his sense of irregular trust in her.

"You get on, too. I'll get you both back to the house." He told her, and then they were off.

.

.

.

"I'm worried." Elaine whined, pacing back and forth in front of the main doors.

"I'm sure they're jus' playin' tag or somethin'~" Ban comforted her, scooping her up in his oversized arms and tucking her in between his legs comfortably.

"Ehh…Ban, stop, I'm trying to be a good sister here!" She complained.

"Well, why don't you drop that act and be my-"

He was clipped by the sound of the doors opening, and three people making their untimely appearance. Elaine jumped out of Ban's arms and over to the odd group to check up on them.

"Oh my gosh! Please tell me…you're all ok…" she mumbled the last part at the sight of Meliodas collapsed on the pillow.

"Wow, looks like Cap'n took quite the spill. You think…" Ban stopped talking abruptly at the sight of the princess beside him, staring down at him with worry.

"Ban…" Elaine squeaked, voice barely audible as King started to babble about spiders. "Are you seeing what I'm seeing?"

"Yeah," ban let out a well-anticipated breath. "That girl…"

"What are you two idiots staring at! Help us save him!" King yelled, red-faced as Ban and Elaine studied the scene before them.

"R-right," Elaine mumbled, still a tiny bit shaken. "Ban, why don't you go get Merlin?"

"I will," Ban said, flashing a suspicious look at the princess before racing off.

Elizabeth jumped off of the pillow, ready for action.

"Elaine, we're going to need to wash the wound out, and flush out as much poison as we can," she informed her heartily. Elaine nodded and floated upwards.

"Harley, take him to the great room, I'll set up a basin there," Elaine informed her brother quickly.

"Rodger." King snapped his fingers and sent his sacred treasure to the great room, the grateful princess traling not far behind.

After they were gone, Elaine floated up to her brother, eager for extra information on what had went down.

"You saw what she was holding?" She asked, going for the most important detail first. King made a face like he was attempting to remember, before the realization dawned upon him

"Was she holding…Captain's…"

"His sword handle." Elaine confirmed, glanincing down the hall where the mismatched pair had disappeared. "I don't know how she did it."

"Guess we'll just have to find out," King concluded grimly. Meliodas never was a man who enjoyed divulging his secrets, and he never was a man known for having few of them.

.

.

.

Elizabeth gently set the wash cloth on top of Meliodas's forehead after extensive medical work on his back was near finished. She was thankful for all those years of training, however distant, because the helped her out more than she could've imagined in the end. She felt the eager eyes of the rest of the house's contenders all over her, begging the question of if their captain would survive the night or not.

"He should be fine," she spoke with just enough confidence to put them all at ease.

"I'm impressed," Merlin remarked, glancing over Meliodas with a disinterested expression. "I would've never guessed the new girl would get Captain so mortally wounded."

Elizabeth decided not to answer, the situation had already been explained to everyone, but they all just _loved_ to ignore the tiny detail that she was not the one who bit him – that was the spider's fault. She merely…led him straight to the spider.

Ok, so she was mainly at fault for this – but it wasn't like she didn't feel any guilt.

" _I'm_ more surprised as to how you got that sword handle," Elaine interrupted, curiosity surfacing like a worn life jacket in the sea.

"Oh…this?" Elizabeth fumbled around for the dusty green handle before lifting it up to present it. "I just grabbed it for protection…I guess…"

Ban canvassed her with his bloody red eyes and made his lips into a thin line. "Cap'n doesn't like it when people touch that lil' number…"

Elizabeth flushed, embarrassed. "Oh…I didn't know, I'm…sorry." She put the sword next to Meliodas, chewing at the edge of her lip anxiously.

"Anyways," King finally said, breaking the thick silence with a single word. "We should all get off to bed, I'm sure Captain will be fine by morning."

"I fixed up your bed, Elizabeth." Elaine inputted sharply. Elizabeth felt her cheeks warm up once more. Right. Because she had completely butchered the bedroom after her escape fiasco.

Speaking of escaping, she seemed even farther away from it than she had been before. Partially because she felt indebted to her savior, and partially because they would no doubt be keeping a closer eye on her from now on.

Gaze falling back to Meliodas, she breathed out lightly and pulled the blanket over his exposed chest. The heat of the fireplace should do the trick, but she had to be sure.

She had a million questions to ask him in the morning – most of which having to do with _why_ and _what_ she was doing here – but they could wait until then, right? When morning came, so would her answers. It was that simple.

She gave one last, painfully lingering look at her fallen hero, before shutting the door behind her.

Right. Simple.

Anyone with that many secrets had to be the opposite of simple – he was a mystery, and yet, like the curious butterfly that she was, she was drawn to the fire like pen to paper.

She'd be lucky enough if she escaped this house with her sanity, let alone her life.

* * *

 **ok so at this point i usually do review responses but tbh its like eleven and im tiiired and i figured u guys would appreciate just the chapter xD**

 **sidenote, important for new readers so please read!**

 **~ for all of you strictly anime watchers (thanks netflix) i will be trying my absolute hardest to limit manga spoilers, so you guys wont need to worry!**

 **also...marcy i was like crying while i read your review bc i was like asdfghjk marcy read nnt im dy ing so please (please) grace this fandom with your eloquence and epicness please i wil also i totally understand what u mean abt procrastinating bc i was SO READY to respond to this review and it just...never happened...my laziness is a burden i may never overcome...eyughh...**

 **anyways WOW THERE ARE SO MANY OF YOU GUYS ill be honest i only updated bc i felt guilty that there are like...60 of you now...wow...**

 **please review to redeem my dead soul bc i really appreciate that shit and i will try to respond one by one but ahah haa weall know thats not gonna happen**


	4. play the part

**im aliv**

 **jk ... im sorry i skipped editing but i have a vicodin that will kick in in like 10 minutes i a g**

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It was the middle of the night, and she still couldn't get that barred window out of her head.

Elaine had pretended not to notice when she took her back to her room, but Elizabeth noticed, it was the first thing she saw when she entered the room she had escaped only a mere couple of hours ago.

The window, which had previously held a ragtag bunch of blankets that had provided her with an escape, was barred shut with two large wooden planks, and thick, rusty nails that bent at the edges. A sign of distrust, and it haunted her like her own shadow.

That wasn't the only sign she noticed, of course, there was the significant dent in the amount of blankets she was given, the extra padlock on the door, and just the looks of uncertainty as she was escorted back to her room.

That was probably hours ago, she had no idea how long she'd been staring at the dark ceiling. Without the natural starlight the window would've presumably offered, the room was completely black, save the dim candle sitting on the dresser drawer from across the bed.

She closed her eyes and imagined the other residents of the mansion, Elaine, Merlin…come to think of it, she didn't actually know many of the resident's names. She'd recognize them visually, but the names were only fog.

Then there was Meliodas, of course. But she was too conflicted to try and think about him, especially regarding the state she'd left him in.

Right. He could be bleeding out in front of that fireplace right now, because of her.

She sat up in her bed abruptly, feeling suddenly motivated to do _something_ – anything, actually. Even if hat anything was to violate her already strict curfew. The only thing standing in her way was the padlock.

Not that it would be an issue. Veronica was an expert with padlocks and hair pins, and Elizabeth had watched her multiple times breaking into the cook's room where they kept the baking ingredients and desserts. She made it seem easy, so it couldn't be all that difficult, right?

Right. Twenty minutes and three hairpins later the realized the skill definitely came with experience.

Nonetheless, she was free to explore. Not that exploring was the main goal in mind, no, the objective was to check on Meliodas. Get in, get out. Nice and simple, no giant spiders or weird basement dwellers.

Elizabeth pulled up the hem of her nightgown so that the lacy edges avoided snagging any strange furniture littering the clouded hallways of the floor her room was located on. She also kept her head low, in case any of the strange people residing in the mansion decided to take a midnight stroll.

Speaking of strange people…

As Elizabeth drew closer to the grand staircase leading down to the main level, she overheard a hushed conversation in the grand room connected to the base of the steps. Standing at the bottom, from Elizabeth's view in between two grayish pillars, was Merlin, the floating boy from the forest, Elaine, the tall man with the scar on his neck, and another girl with shoulder length brown hair.

Merlin began to speak, and Elizabeth slowly leaned in to listen.

"-I'll admit, that seal was quite difficult to construct…it'll take me a while to fully reseal the forest, so I'd expect a good deal of…complications, in the next week or so." She explained. Right. There was much conversation regarding this 'seal', one Elizabeth presumed kept all the creepy crawlies of the haunted forest _in_ the forest. And she was evidently the one who had broken said seal. Nice one, Elizabeth.

There was a collective groan following Merlin's information.

"Ugh, not _again_ , I'm fucking sick of dealing with all the weird shit that leaks outta there…" the tall man complained, scratching the back of his neck and throwing a glare in Merlin's direction.

"Shut up Ban! Last time the seal broke, you did none of the work! You tried to _feed_ me to those mutant bears!" The short, floating boy accused, hugging his hovering pillow like a protective barrier between himself and Ban.

"King's right. I _hate_ those forest creatures, and you said that a _spider_ bit Captain! I _hate_ spiders-"

"Christ. For a giant woman you sure are a pansy." Ban remarked sharply in the direction of the brunette girl who had spoken before him. Elizabeth could feel the furious aura emitting from a floor below as the girl glowered at Ban.

"Don't pay attention to him, Di. He's just worried about Meliodas…" Elaine comforted the angry girl, Di, apparently, and her anger subsided.

"We're _all_ worried." Di corrected, folding her arms soundly. "I'm going to bed, and if Captain isn't okay by morning, I'm going to _crush_ that blonde bimbette for doing this to him."

Elizabeth bit her cheek and looked away. Great. She already had a bad reputation with Di, despite not even knowing her. And she seemed to have quite the temper. Strike two.

"Come on Di…it wasn't _really_ Elizabeth's fault, she was just scared! You know Meliodas can be a bit…much…" Elaine defended her and Elizabeth let out a sigh. That was nice of her, especially since she'd just caused a minor panic.

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean you can just _run off_ and almost get everyone _killed_! I don't even know why she's here…" Di fired back, clearly upset with the whole situation. Elizabeth conceded that she probably deserved it, but at the same time, why _was_ she here? It seemed like the only person with any idea was her kidnapper.

" _None_ of us know why she's here." King added unhelpfully. There was a small silence and Elizabeth could hear herself breathing erratically. If they discovered her eavesdropping, there probably wouldn't be a happy ending in her favor.

"We should all get some sleep…" Elaine countered, voice low and reserved. There were a few murmurs of agreement and the group began to disperse. Elizabeth took special notice of the brunette, Di, lingering behind as most of the group walked away. She supposed she was lucky enough that a majority of their bedrooms were located on the main level or perhaps the basement, otherwise she would've run the risk of getting discovered.

King approached Di carefully, his feet hitting the ground in an unusual sense as his pillow morphed into a small bear, which he then caught in his hands.

"Don't worry, Diane." He comforted softly. "Captain will be okay."

Diane sniffed and King handed her the bear. Elizabeth felt herself lean in, eager to hear the rest of their conversation. There was something softly intimate about the way King talked to her, and his pillow, which seemed somewhat sacred to him, was so easily given away it made her wonder if there was more behind the story between the group. Diane flashed him a grateful smile.

"Thank you, King." She patted his head and retreated into a back hallway behind the kitchen, still holding the bear he had given her.

Satisfied with his actions, King floated upwards and traveled in an opposite direction. The room was empty, and the opportunity was knocking.

Elizabeth slid down the steps gently, eyes flickering in every direction, expecting an ambush of weirdos that lived in the mansion to attack her and drag her away to the depths of the basement.

She scrunched up her fist. _Not today, weirdos_.

If she remembered correctly, the place where she had keenly operated on Meliodas was a great room, to the left of the stairway. But, if she was wrong, she risked being caught, and possibly eaten by mutant cannibals.

That _may_ have been a tiny exaggeration, but at this point, with evil giant spiders running rampant, anything was possible.

She tiptoed left and pressed her back up against the wall, clean, white nightgown meeting stark dark walls that clashed in a classic battle of good and evil. How ironic.

Really, what was she even doing? Her hand retracted from its grip on the stairwell and she paused. She didn't owe this man _anything_ – not technically at least. Sure, he followed her into the woods and almost got himself killed. That wasn't really her fault, if he wouldn't have kidnapped her in the first place, he never would've had to follow her, and _none_ of this would've happened.

But she could play the what-if game forever. And truth be told, it would solve nothing. She'd still be just as stuck as she was before. Helpless. And if she happened to let the one person who tried to rescue her in the dark die, she might be even more stuck than she was before.

She released the banister and continued forward. Better this than nothing.

After a few minutes of aimless, candle-lit wandering, she approached the great room. The dull light of the fireplace still illuminating the reddish, blood-colored walls as she opened the doors carefully, not to disturb any possible wandering nightmares. In and out. The door slipped shut.

The room was just as she had left it. A water basin lingering by the fireplace, soaked with her savior's blood along with rags and bandages that she had demanded from the stunned patrons of the mansions.

He laid there, frozen, almost dead. The bandages wrapped around his back were pale colored, save the spots speckled with his dried blood. Just where she had last seen him.

She wiped her sweaty hands on the walls and felt them twitch with anticipation. Just change the bandages, nothing too fancy. Then no one will know that she snuck out.

She felt her stomach churn as she kneeled down next to his body, gently turning him to the side so that she could grab the edge of the bandage. Her hands fumbled with it, and she subconsciously cursed herself for being so clumsy despite the direness of the situation.

"Okay, okay…just…relax…" She told herself, succumbing to a self-induced pep talk in order to accomplish her only goal – keep her kidnapper _alive_.

Suddenly, the air shifted, and she could've sworn she saw the firelight flicker.

"I am relaxed," a voice replied. She jumped back, almost spilling the bloody basin in her surprise. Meliodas smiled, his eyes still shut soundly.

"Oh…you're…awake, I'm sorry…" She rubbed her hands together fearfully and tapped her fingers together. "I was just trying to-"

"It's okay." He assured her, a slight groan to his voice. "It doesn't hurt much."

"I find that hard to believe," she smarted, taking a few tentative steps forward on her knees so that she could continue to change his bandages.

"Just a little spider bite." He assured her, eyes stubbornly shut, as if he were having a nice relaxing conversation by the beach. "I've had worse."

"Not really _little_ ," Elizabeth argued quietly, but continued unraveling his bandages gently while he laid on his stomach.

"It'll be gone soon enough." He reasoned, before forcing himself into a sitting position with several complaints from his weary joints.

"Oh – _no_ what are you doing?" Elizabeth asked him, frantically pressing on his chest, a begging motion for him to lay back down and avoid any strain to his wounded areas.

"Psh. It's fine. It'll be easy for you to change it now." He encouraged her. She hesitantly continued, but not without cursing his recklessness in her thoughts.

His head perked up when she began unraveling the new bandage, his back exposed to the chill of the mansion air.

"What are you thinking?" He asked her – although Elizabeth sensed it was more of a demand than a question.

"I'm thinking…-" she trailed off, wondering what to start with. She had to start small if she really wanted his trust. Make small talk – but not too small. He would undoubtedly sense her insincerity if she began to converse about the _weather_ , or something else trivial. "…why did you come to save me?"

He exhaled, his striking green eyes finally opening so that he could examine her, bathed in the light of the dying fire. She probably looked a mess – hair smothered by her pillows, and innocent nightgown stained in his blood.

"I wasn't about to let the forest chew you up and spit you out," he explained musically, like she were a new toy instead of a living, breathing woman. "I just got you, what's the point in letting you slip away?"

Her hands clenched on the newly cleaned bandages. "So that's it then?"

His eyes met hers, and she knew it was much more.

"That's it." He said, lips pulled into a finalized line. He was done talking on that issue. She'd just have to gain more trust if she wanted more information.

"My sister," she began again, wrapping the bandages against his wounded back. "You gave her and her fiancé _quite_ the scare…but she told me, that…you've helped him before. Gilthunder, that is." Elizabeth spoke softly, not wantig to let how badly she wanted the information slip. Talking with Meliodas was like playing chess.

Unfortunately for Elizabeth, a game she was never all that good at.

Meliodas grinned, she could tell he was reminiscing something rather peculiar.

"Yeah, sure. Old Gil was a pretty cute kid – I figured I'd help him out in his time of need." He grinned at her. "I'm not a monster, you know."

"-And yet you blackmailed them." She responded mindlessly. His eyebrow arched.

"Blackmail is a strong word." He said, as if advising her to watch her step. "I'd say – _advised_."

" _Advised_ implies that there's a margin of error." She argued fluently. "You gave them no such luxury." She could feel the heat on the tip of her tongue, her bandage wrap tightening around his back.

"I wouldn't have done this if there was a _margin_ , Princess." He replied seamlessly. There was something insensitive about the way he said _princess_ – reminding her that here, her title meant nothing.

"Don't _pretend_ you did this for me!" She shouted, suddenly angry. "You did this for _yourself_ , and no one else!"

He looked at her, not in anger, but not in surprise, either.

"Don't assume you know everything," was all he said.

"Then _don't_ act like you're the hero." She responded, moving her hands to her hips and frowning.

"Am I the villain then?" He grinned, flashing her his bright white teeth. Immediately she regretted her statement. It was a stupid thing – to challenge him. And she really shouldn't go casting roles in a story who's plot she had yet to unravel.

"I can play the villain, if you want me to." He added promisingly. He was asking her then, for permission. She was unsure what she wanted.

"I don't…" she stammered, the intensity in his fiery eyes intimidating. "I'm not sure yet."

He cringed and she realized that she'd been pulling on his bandages too hard.

"S-sorry," she stuttered, loosening her grip and finishing off the ends. There. Now he wouldn't die. At least, not on her watch.

He stayed silent as she tied the ends off, gently rubbing her hands onto her bloodied nightgown.

"Careful," he spoke gently, "blood doesn't suit you."

Her eyes rose momentarily so that she could summon a weak glare. She had no words left for him – questions, maybe. But none that he would give her a straight answer to.

"Goodnight, sir." She annunciated, making it clear to him that his first name would not be something she would commonly use. He noticed instantly, but made no comment aside from a laughing sound in the back of his throat.

"You know Elizabeth," he told her, just as her fingers grazed the door. "I can play any role you cast me in."

She hesitated, trying to think of something halfway intelligent to say. "Then…I suppose we'll just have to wait and see."

She opened the door carefully, intent on ignoring any and everything he would say in response. But nothing came.

Until the very last second of course, when her fingers left the door and it began to slide shut, he called out her name.

"Oh and by the way," he added slyly, "…stay away from the basement."

The door clicked shut.

Her fist collided with the wall just as the words left his mouth – and somehow, she just _knew_ he was grinning. He sure enjoyed toying with her, maybe it brought him some sort of sick joy. Just when she had thought it be possible to et him to trust her, she realized it was as futile as trying to make conversation with a python. No matter how she tried, she'd always end up trapped.

At least she knew that two could play at that game. And if she was going to start casting roles, she'd have to pick up the role of the hero pretty soon, otherwise, she'd stay the victim for the rest of her life. And there was no _way_ she could let that happen.

Margaret and Gilthunder's sacrifice had led her here – now she just had to find a way out.

Of course, she'd have to find a way out of her blood soaked nightgown, first.

She looked down at herself and sighed. Tomorrow. Tomorrow she would figure this all out, and she would have a better plan by tomorrow on how to escape. Without the giant spiders, of course.

She would just deal with all that in the morning.

.

.

.

"Oh my _god_."

Elizabeth cracked an eye open, only to see a silky sheen curtain of her own hair concealing her vision entirely. She must've had a rough sleep.

She sat up and pushed her pile of unruly hair back to see Elaine, in all her floating glory, staring at her like she'd just witnessed a murder.

"Oh…um…my hair…" Elizabeth assumed she was shocked by the state of her silvery hair, which was usually combed to perfection back at the castle, was now a tangled mess that her sleep refused to spare.

"Oh…not that…" Elaine stammered. "You…your…"

Elizabeth looked down. Oh right. Her blood-stained nightgown. She looked like she had gone for a midnight murder stroll.

"Oh my goodness…I…forgot to change.." She said sheepishly, springing out of bed and keeping her arms close to her chest.

"That's…alright. Just put on something from your wardrobe over there," Elaine flicked her dainty fingers and the wardrobe flew open. Interesting. Elizabeth had see her use magic before, but every time it startled her just as much as it did the first time.

"Breakfast is starting in a few minutes – Ban cooked, so it's going to be _really_ good…" Elaine said with the smallest hint of pride. "And don't worry, everyone is going to be on their _best_ behavior…"

"Thank you, I'll get dressed right away!" Elizabeth did her best to fake a cheery exterior. Elaine bought it and bid her farewell. That was her only success so far – earning Elaine's trust. Now she just needed to get the rest of the mansion on her side. Who knows, maybe all together, they would have enough strength to out rule Meliodas in his own mansion.

At least, that was the impression she got from everyone. Meliodas was the leader – their _Captain_ , so to speak – as long as she didn't openly defy him she would be fine.

That was much easier said than done.

Once she managed to slip out of her bloody nightgown and into a simple mint green dress, she fixed her hair and threw it into a mediocre ponytail, not wanting to bother with it down and everywhere. Today was about making connections, not about feeling like a princess.

She made a gentle descent down the stairs, tuning her ears onto the sound of yelling and screaming, presumably coming from the dining hall, which was near the grand room where Meliodas was being kept.

The screaming grew louder, it sounded more like an argument the closer she got. Something about leftovers and maple syrup, all of which seemed mundane enough for her to handle in a day. The kitchen leered closer and she felt the butterflies in her stomach churn. Hopefully nothing too out of the ordinary would occur.

As if the mansion had read her mind, a kitchen plate came soaring from the kitchen and slammed into a painting with a harsh shatter.

"OH, NICE ONE THERE BAN. REAL MATURE."

"SHUT UP YOU FUCKIN' GIANT BIT-"

Elizabeth peered into the kitchen to see what appeared to be the middle of an all-out breakfast war. There was an extremely tall man wearing nothing but an apron and slippers throwing plates full of pancakes at people. The woman who tried to take Elizabeth's blood, Merlin, sat calmly at the edge of the table, stirring her cup of coffee without touching it while reading a book that looked beyond ancient. Elaine was yelling at the boy with the pillow from last night, and the brunette girl, Diane, was screaming at the man in the apron. A pig was sitting at the foot of the table chewing on a waffle. There was a slim boy with pink hair and glasses peering over Merlin's shoulder and reading her book silently. Elizabeth thought she recognized him, but it was a hazy recognition, like she'd only seen him in a distant faraway dream. At the other side of the table, there was a short, timid looking blond boy, a younger boy with ginger hair and striking violet eyes, and yet another blond – one too familiar for Elizabeth to quite comprehend.

Elaine noticed Elizabeth only a few seconds after her arrival.

"Oh my – _gosh_ , Elizabeth, I swear, it isn't usually like this, I-" Elaine took a moment to bop the tall man with the apron on the head, steering his attention away from Diane and back towards Elizabeth. " _Guys_ , the new girl is here!"

Some of the residents offered her a withering look of acknowledgment before returning to their breakfast. Meliodas didn't even turn his head, he was too busy laughing at the man in the apron.

Meanwhile, the boy with pink hair had his eyes _fixed_ on her.

"Hello." He said. "You must be the experiment."

Elizabeth nearly choked. "The…what…?"

"Oh, don't mind him…" Elaine flew over and began to steer Elizabeth towards a seat next to the counter. "Here, you can sit by me and Ban! I'll keep him in line, don't you worry-"

"Shouldn't…Meliodas…be…" she trailed off mindlessly. Elaine waved her thoughts away.

"Oh, he's a quick healer, thanks to you, I guess! What would you like, waffles, pancakes? Ban can make _anything_." Elaine changed topics like the seasons. Elizabeth's mouth hung open like a goldfish.

"The new girl smells so _good_!" A voice from below her legs echoed. Elizabeth jumped, afraid that someone was hiding beneath the table, only to see the pigfrom before looking up at her anxiously.

"Is that…a…"

"That's Hawk." Elaine said simply. "He's our pig."

"Your…pig…" Elizabeth trailed off slowly.

"Nice to meet you, Eli-za-beth." The pig greeted. Of course. A talking pig. It was plausible, right? Talking pig, giant spiders…

Elizabeth felt her head spin as a million details flooded through her mind. What was even going on? Was it _always_ this hectic?

"Okay, I'm just giving the new girl pancakes…" Ban, the cook, said with a shrug as he turned back to the steaming stove. The girl he was previously fighting with, Diane, swiveled her attention to Elizabeth.

"Listen, _Princess_ ," she began angrily, "if you think you're at all _special_ just because you're _tiny_ and you have shiny hair, you've got another thing coming because-"

"Diane!" Elaine protested, "let her be, she's trying her best-"

"So, is it true that she almost killed you Captain Meliodas?" The young boy asked Meliodas eagerly. Meliodas, meanwhile, was leaned back confidently against his chair, a plate of untouched pancakes, as smug as a dragon guarding his treasure.

"She _sure_ came close," he joked, throwing Elizabeth a quick wink. That's right, nobody but him knew that she had gotten out of bed just to help him last night. Elizabeth's gaze drooped and Ban laughed.

Diane glared. "That's not _funny_ Ban! You dumbass!"

"You're right, it's hilarious." Ban corrected himself snidely. "Here's your pancakes, cupcake." Ban threw a plate of pancakes at the blank space in front of Elizabeth with a loud crash. Elizabeth felt herself swallow unkindly at the new nickname, but she'd rather that than _princess_ any day.

"That's _insane_ ," the boy with amber hair gaped at Elizabeth. "Captain is the strongest of all of us – and you almost kill him on day _one_!"

Somehow, Elizabeth felt that the raise was underhanded. Diane glowered at her and Elaine sent her a sympathetic look.

"Arthur, please." Merlin said, her voice an eerie shade of cal amongst the chaos. "The princess has heard enough about yesterday's endeavors, why don't we try our best to be a bit more…welcoming?"

On Merlin's word, the kitchen cleaned itself miraculously. Plates un-shattered and placed themselves back into cabinets cleanly, and everyone suddenly took a seat at the table. It was like there was an _off_ switch for the insanity the mansion held, and Merlin was the only one who could reach it.

Meliodas found the whole spectacle quite amusing. "How long d'ya think that'll keep them down, Merlin?"

Merlin smiled with those thin, enchanting lips, today they were painted a shade of bright magenta. "We shall see, Captain."

"Well now that everyone's _settled_ ," Elaine threw a glare at everyone who had been up and fighting when Elizabeth arrived, "why don't we all do her the favor of introducing ourselves?"

The way Elaine said that made it sound like she was the true captain of the house, and Meliodas seemed to have no objections to her authority.

Elaine smirked. " _Thank_ you. Ban, why don't you start?"

He obediently tipped his head in her direction. "Yes ma'am." Then he turned to Elizabeth, smiling just enough so that she had the perfect view of his vampiric pointed teeth. "Yo, I'm _Ban_ the immortal."

"We're doing titles?" The young boy, Arthur, panicked. "What's my title? I forgot-"

"The king of _Camelot_ , dork." The young boy beside him grumbled.

Camelot? Elizabeth's brow furrowed. The kingdom sounded familiar, but she was unsure as to where it came from.

"I'm Merlin," Merlin introduced, nodding her head towards Elizabeth. "And if we do care for titles, then I would be the _Greatest Sorceress in all Britannia_."

There was a brief utterance of the word _showoff,_ but Merlin ignored it. Elizabeth nodded, not wanting to concede that she was suddenly afraid of being turned into a toad by the self proclaimed sorceress. There was something about her aura that read that she was not a force to be reckoned with.

"I am Gowther." The pink haired boy beside her uttered. "The selfless."

"Nice to…um…meet you…" Elizabeth blinked, suddenly doubting herself. Had she heard that name before? This didn't seem like their first meeting, but she could've been imagining things.

"I'm Diane." The brunette girl with angry eyes proclaimed. "The _giantess,_ and I won't _hesitate_ to crush you, girly."

Elizabeth blinked. She didn't seem very giant.

"Diane," Elaine chastised. Diane rolled her eyes and leaned back, looking anywhere but where Elizabeth was sitting. Great. Another enemy.

"I'm King." The smaller boy whom Elizabeth had seen talking with Diane the night before informed her. "The Fairy King, if we're doing titles."

Elizabeth was about to ask if he was serious – and if fairies really _did_ exist, but she decided against it. Something about these people told her that they weren't the joking type – when it came to titles, at least.

"And I'm Arthur!" The youngest boy jumped in quickly. "King of Camelot."

" _Future_ King of Camelot." Merlin added. Arthur nodded, slightly embarrassed.

Elizabeth suddenly remembered where she had heard the name Camelot before – it was a formerly powerful ally of Liones, until something happened to it…she couldn't quite remember…was it an invasion…? Something happened, and it dissolved the alliance between Camelot and Liones. Unfortunately, due to her status of youngest and adopted daughter of the king, not much political information was passed onto Elizabeth. She'd just have to find out the details later on.

"I think Elizabeth knows me," Meliodas simply shrugged. Ban let out a low laugh like they had just shared an inside joke.

"A-and I am Escanor." The timid boy next to Meliodas waved. "J-just Escanor."

Well, he seemed normal enough. Elizabeth waved to him gently. He looked nervous, almost like he was afraid of her. She pulled back and stared at her hands in her lap. Great. Everyone here was either al-powerful or crazy.

"Don't forget _me_ ," the pig from before sat up on the table. "I'm Hawk! The leader of the knights of the-"

"Hey," Meliodas poked the pig with his fork sharply. "Off the table."

"You bastard-"

"Captain, poke him right in the bacon-"

"If that pig steps in my pancakes, I swear to god we're having ham tonight-"

"So, Elizabeth…" Elaine spoke over the crowd protectively. "How do you like it here?"

"It's…very…" Elizabeth cringed as she heard the sound of a plate smashing. "…Hectic?"

Elaine grimaced. "Yeah….it gets like that sometimes…"

"Um…I'm sure I'll get used to it…" Elizabeth smiled weakly. Her pancakes seemed unappetizing now, with all the energy the household held. Elaine smiled back.

"That's the spirit! Don't worry, I'm sure everyone will like you soon enough!" Elaine reassured her. "Um…could you excuse me for a moment? I have to take care of…" Elaine's eyes shifted towards King, who was hurling forks at Ban with deadly accuracy.

Elizabeth stared at her pancakes. With so much going on, how was she supposed to naviate her way out of here? And it seemed like half of the house already wanted to kill her, or perform tests on her. She'd never make it out alive until she started making friends, besides Elaine, that is.

"Are you gonna finish that?" The talking pig, Hawk, asked her greedily. She looked down at him sadly, he seemed to be the lowest rung of the household. Meliodas had even stabbed him with a fork. With a surge of pity, she lowered her plate to the ground.

"No, it's uh…it's all yours…" She yielded her plate to him and he greedily ate it in only a few bites.

"Thanks Elizabeth! You know…you're really nice…if you want, I'll keep you safe around here. I know the get-around, and that it can be kind of crazy here sometimes, especially with that _bastard_ Meliodas…" Hawk began to tell her. Elizabeth blinked. Someone who disliked Meliodas in the household? This could be the perfect opportunity to learn more about him.

"That sounds nice, Hawk." She smiled, genuinely this time. The pig may have been smiling back – but she couldn't be too sure.

That was two friends now. She couldn't give up – not _just_ yet.

.

.

.

"It's because you smell nice, you know." Hawk mused, the soft clip-clopping of his hooves broken by the sound of his voice. He had been showing Elizabeth to the west wing after the disaster that was breakfast – and Elizabeth had been simply enjoying the company.

"What do you mean?" She inquired back, suddenly self conscious. He'd said before that she smelled nice, but did that mean something different here.

"Yup. That's why I decided to trust you – your smell is trustworthy, and I'm not crazy, like Diane. I don't think you _really_ tried to kill Meliodas." He ambled on.

"Oh – um, well that's very nice of you." Elizabeth muttered. Nice to know that someone was on her side because of her scent.

"You're welcome! And, I know Meliodas is a creep, but you should know that-" Hawk made a squealing sound and jumped 10 feet in the air. Meliodas stood behind him, a fork in hand, grinning. Elizabeth's eyes widened in realization – she knew that Meliodas was odd, but the frequency of _fork_ stabbing was a little bit too much for her to handle.

"You – why would you – "

"I can't have people spreading crazy _rumors_ about me, can I?" Meliodas twirled the fork and then hurled it directly across the hall – straight into the face of an ancient King of Britannia, which had been a beautiful painting before he senselessly fork-defaced it. Honestly, Elizabeth wondered how they managed to keep _any_ art pieces intact in this place.

Hawk made a nervous squeaking sound and hid unsuccessfully behind Elizabeth's ankles. Feeling a surge of protectiveness for the poor pig, she puffed up her chest and put her hands on her hips.

"You didn't have to _stab_ him!" Elizabeth told Meliodas stubbornly.

"The pork needs to learn his place." Meliodas shrugged. "Besides, I was hoping for an audience – _alone_ – with our dear princess."

Elizabeth felt her blood freeze. "No."

Meliodas raised an eyebrow. "No? Really? Well, I guess that's okay…"

Elizabeth took a step back, waiting for the blackmail, or the threat. It had to come, right?

"-As long as you don't mind bacon for lunch today!" He finished with a smile towards Hawk.

Elizabeth faltered. "I-"

Meliodas held out his hand. "I just want a word with you, princess. Is that really so much to ask, even after I saved your life in those woods?" he asked her innocently.

"I'm…" Elizabeth trailed off again. She didn't want to go with him, but she got the feeling that going with him would also benefit her with some sort of information. Plus, if she managed to finally get his trust, she had a feeling th rest of the people in the house would fall down like a house of cards. She just had to make her amends.

"A-alright. Where are we going?" She asked him, hoping to alert Hawk to her location in case Meliodas decided to murder her wherever it was that they were going. Which seemed unlikely, he'd surely wasted a lot of energy keeping her safe, it would be a little bit unconventional to just kill her then and there.

He smiled secretively. That was pretty annoying, actually.

"You'll see."

Hawk made a growling sound. "Meliodas, you're up to something…don't you dare hurt my new friend Elizabe-"

Meliodas cut him off by throwing the work at Elizabeth's feet like a knife. It landed an inch below Hawk's snout and he shrieked indignantly.

"Ok, ok! You win!" He conceded. Elizabeth felt sick. But this was her only option.

"Don't worry, I'll bring her back safe and sound…" Meliodas sung, taking Elizabeth's hand like it was fine china and pulling her lightly down the hall where Hawk had been leading her. "Probably."

"Meliodas! You-"

Two large doors separating the hallways suddenly swung forward, completely cutting off the passageway between Meliodas and Elizabeth, and Hawk on the other side.

"Where are you taking me?" Elizabeth demanded immediately, suddenly forgetting about her unspoken safety and feeling respectably on edge in the presence of Meliodas.

"Relax, Elizabeth. I just want to show you something." He told her, a glint of mischief in his eyes like a wildfire.

She couldn't help but notice his use of her name. He seemed to stress every syllable, like it was important to him that she noticed his emphasis. She could just be imagining things, of course. He was one strange man.

"You told me last night…" he started to speak, his back facing her, which was still wrapped in the bandages from last night, only they appeared less battered and bloody. Maybe he was a quick healer, but something that miraculous was almost god-like.

"Hm?" She asked him, realizing she had failed to pay attention.

"You told me last night that you have yet to cast the roles in your little _story_ ," he said, clicking the word _story_ like she was just an insignificant child, and her life was as tangible as a fairy tale. "Have you made up your mind yet?"

"You're a little eager, don't you think?" Elizabeth asked him in defiance. He took a sudden sharp turn, Elizabeth would've missed it if she hadn't been following him. Sometimes the walls and at molded together, like an intricate hedge maze woven entirely inside the rich wooden manor. As spellbinding as it was terrifying.

"Can you blame me?" He asked her back. "You're an interesting girl, Elizabeth. I wouldn't have bothered with you if you weren't."

She gritted her teeth. "So you like to play god, huh?"

He clicked his tongue. "I prefer to call it _respectable meddling_."

"Your _meddling_ isn't very appreciated in my case." She informed him tightly. He sighed, like she wasn't getting any of the clues he was laying out.

"Someday, you'll understand why I did what I did." He told her flippantly, before throwing open a pair of doors that seemed to be encrusted with aged gems and gold. It didn't even look like an actual pair of doors until he threw them open like that.

"Why not now?" She asked, cringing at the way she sounded like a young child desiring an extra cookie. He noticed it as well.

"Because," he reasoned. "I want to see your choices, first."

Elizabeth blinked back to the boy with the pink hair and the glasses – back to what he had called her.

 _The experiment_.

"Like an experiment?" She asked aloud. Meliodas stopped in his tracks.

"Not quite." He answered her succinctly. "I want to see you. Your reactions." He looked at her seriously for a moment, and she almost wondered if this boy knew her more than he was letting on.

"So you want to experiment on me?" She asked pointedly, not hiding the obvious offense in her voice.

"Please. If I _really_ wanted to experiment on you, do you think I would've let you escape from me in the first place?" Meliodas asked her knowingly. Damn. He was right, but he still didn't make this place seem any more appetizing than a knife to the kidney. "No, it has to be on your own terms…"

" _What_ has to be on my own terms?" She asked him. He shook his head.

"Nevermind – it's not important." He brushed it away a bit too quickly for her tastes. There was another question piled onto the boundless mystery that was Meliodas. The frustrating, endless mystery.

Elizabeth huffed. Where was he taking her? The endless hallways were getting to be dizzying – like they'd extend for miles until Meliodas decided to open another door.

"Where are you-"

"Relax," Meliodas's voice suddenly instructed her. "These corridors would love to trick you. Just follow the sound of my voice, and you'll be alright."

Elizabeth looked forwards and realized that Meliodas had disappeared. She stopped short.

"Meliodas?" Her voice seemed to echo for miles. The hallway was endless – it went on for _miles_. And miles and miles and _miles_ …and she was so _tired_ …maybe if she just sat down, and took a quick nap…

She heard familiar laughter and suddenly she felt angry. Meliodas was laughing at her – she'd show him.

"Giving up already?" He taunted her. "Careful, get lost in these halls and you'll never escape…"

Never escape? Elizabeth gripped the walls. That sounded scary…and she had no doubt that there was some sort of magic in the walls, she could feel it buzzing beneath her fingertips…lost forever…it actually sounded kinda nice, if she could just drift off into the world and forget everything…

"Elizabeth, what'd I just say?" Meliodas's voice grounded her momentarily.

"Never escape…" she echoed emotionlessly. She felt her stomach dip, like the world turned upside down, and something grab her hand.

"Jeez, you really are useless." Meliodas dragged her through the halls, each step seemed to make her heavier and heavier.

"What…is this?" She stared down at her hands like they were foreign tools. Meliodas laughed at her curiosity.

"It's magic." He replied simply. "And you're not very good at controlling it."

"That's…" the rest of her comment died in her throat. What was he talking about again? And where was she…? A hallway? Meliodas? His hand was on hers, and it was so warm…was she dying?

Suddenly a burst of yellow light snapped her back into the harsh reality that was in ffront of her. A large doorway, with sunlight streaming through it's stained glass patterns beautifully.

Wait a minute…

Sunlight?

"Are we…?" Elizabeth gasped, looking out the giant doors like they were the doors to heaven itself.

"I figured if you're going to be staying here a while, I may as well show you the _nicer_ parts of the mansion," Meliodas swept off his pants like some of the magic from the hallways had dripped onto them.

"Where…" she looked around, the entire area around her was stained glass heaven, and the sunlight just made everything a million times more radiant. That's when she noticed what was below the glass itself, and where they were standing.

Meliodas leaned forward and pushed open the door. "Are you coming, or what?"

They were going outside? He was going to let her outside?

She realized that she sounded like a house pet, but she really didn't care. She'd only been here for a day, but after spending even an hour in the forest of doom, even a droplet of sunlight was like staring into the eye of god himself. She followed Meliodas obediently, and soon enough, she felt the rays of the sun touch her skin, familiar and warm.

"So, in case you wanted some proof that not _all_ of us are terrible, pig-stabbing demons," Meliodas grinned at his own subtext. "Welcome to Merlin's garden, Elizabeth."

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 **ok im tryinggn my best u guys but obviously there are some /aspects of melizabeth and meliodas that im not a huge fan of, so im trying my best! okay!**

 **sorry for slow updates i am a shit...sorry**

 **until next time i guess (;**


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